Series A data and AI startup, leadership team
A Series A data and AI startup had a polished strategy document, but teams were building without clear goals, and product, engineering and sales pulled different ways. I interviewed the leaders, ran regular strategy sessions and an in-person leadership offsite, and built company OKRs with the CEO. The team found the confidence to make a big strategic call, tested it with real customers before betting on it, and still runs its OKRs a year later.
What I did
Confidential interviews with the leadership team on what was working and what wasn’t
Regular strategy sessions with the leadership team, plus a deep dive on the business model
Company OKRs built with the CEO: two sharp objectives in place of too many scattered team goals
An in-person leadership offsite, working back from year-end goals to quarterly milestones, then the company all-hands
Results
A big strategic call made with confidence, and tested with real customers before betting on it
The whole company engaged on the key strategic initiatives, and clear on what they’re doing
OKRs still the company’s operating rhythm more than a year later
The team united behind a plan to reduce its reliance on a single data supplier
Ongoing coaching for the CEO, and a second strategic pivot the founders worked through with the same process
The situation
A Series A data and AI startup had raised its round and written a polished strategy. But the strategy was a document, not yet a set of decisions. Teams were building without clear goals, product, engineering and sales were pulling different ways, and some teams had no way to tell whether they were winning. There were more promising opportunities than the company could chase.
The founders asked me to help them set OKRs. As often happens, the OKRs surfaced the strategy questions underneath.
What we did
I started with confidential interviews with the leaders, to hear what was working and what wasn’t. Then the leadership team met every two weeks to work through the hard questions: who they were really building for, how the business would make money, and who decided what.
With the CEO, we turned that into company OKRs: two sharp objectives, each with clear key results, in place of too many scattered team goals. Then we met in person for a leadership offsite. The team worked back from its goals for the year to quarterly milestones, agreed the story it would tell the company, and took it to the all-hands the next day.
What changed
The work gave the leadership team the clarity and the confidence to make a big strategic call: to move up the value chain, from supplying data to selling a product businesses could use directly. They didn’t bet blind. They tested the new direction with real customers first, and the board backed it a few months later.
The CEO called it the best process they had ever run. More than a year on, the OKRs are still how the company runs its quarters, and the team united behind a plan to reduce its reliance on a single data supplier. I’ve kept coaching the CEO since. When the market shifted again, the founders used the same process and thinking to work through another strategic pivot of their own.
What people said
This is the best process we have ever run, so thank you.
CEO