Series D data SaaS scale-up, about 250 people
A Series D data SaaS scale-up of about 250 people had a problem: when its customers’ costs fell, their urgency went and the product stopped selling. Its OKRs were vague and competing with other priority lists, and the CEO was pulled into everything. I audited execution with 15 leaders, trained both leadership layers and facilitated new company OKRs. They chose to go up-market with a higher-ticket offer for the biggest companies. The company got on budget, and the CEO was no longer pulled into everything.
What I did
An execution audit, interviewing about 15 leaders
OKR training for the senior and wider leadership teams, with my OKR Operating System guide
OKR-setting workshops, from the go-to-market choice to key results and one-page plans
A weekly agenda and a mid-quarter review format
Results
A shift up-market, with a higher-ticket offer for the world’s biggest companies
Major global manufacturers and logistics groups signed as clients
Revenue up 1.5x the following year
On budget for the first time anyone could remember, with a good first quarter and a decent second
The CEO no longer pulled into everything
A leadership team functioning pretty well, with one-page plans and mid-quarter reviews running
Where they started
For years the company had an easy sell. Its customers were facing high and rising costs, and its data helped them take control. Then the market turned. Costs fell, customers relaxed, and the product that had sold itself got much harder to sell.
Inside, the company had grown fast, to about 250 people. It had OKRs, but they were woolly, different in every team and invisible to everyone else, and they competed with other lists of big bets and priorities. Product and commercial teams rarely talked. The founder and CEO was pulled into everything, and so much still came back to him that he had little time for the strategy the company needed.
What we did
I started with an execution audit, interviewing about 15 leaders across the executive team and the layer below. The findings went to the CEO and CFO first, then the executive team, then the wider leadership team, with one recommendation: fix the most painful things first.
The company wanted something to read and refer back to, rather than a training course, so I gave them my OKR Operating System guide and trained both leadership layers using their own examples. Then we ran a series of OKR-setting workshops. The biggest question was where to sell. The executive team settled it in the objectives themselves: sell to and serve the world’s biggest companies, and deliver value to customers faster. Working groups turned those into key results and one-page plans, launched at the company kick-off.
Before I handed over, we set up a weekly agenda and a mid-quarter review so the team could run the rhythm themselves.
What changed
The company went up-market, with a higher-ticket offer aimed at the biggest buyers in its market, and went on to sign major global manufacturers and logistics groups. Four months after launch it was on budget for the first time anyone could remember, with a good first quarter and a decent second. The leadership team was functioning pretty well, one-page plans and mid-quarter reviews were running, and a cross-functional programme on customer value had gone well. The COO said he still opened the guide every couple of weeks. Over the following year, revenue grew 1.5x.
And the CEO, who had been pulled into everything, no longer was.