Radical Focus
by Christina R Wodtke · first published 2015
78% recommend22% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical intro to OKRs with more real-world, startup-oriented examples than older big-company texts; a good first book on goal setting for founders and managers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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Solid read! An additional resource for OKRs is a book called “Radical Focus” by Christina Wodtke. Here is a link to it on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28951428-radical-focus
on “OKRs vs. KPIs: understanding measurements for your SaaS business” ↗A better, more up to date book for startups on OKRs is Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke. The examples are more real world. https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Focus-Achieving-Important-Obj...
on “Ask HN: How to properly manage a product roadmap?” ↗Hi community, I built Quadrant, a lightweight OKR tool inspired by Christina Wodtke’s “Radical Focus.” Best David
on “Show HN: Quadrant – OKRs with Focus for small teams” ↗http://softwareleadweekly.com/ - A weekly newsletter, as well as Slack group - great resource. Books: - Leaders Eat Last - Managing Humans - What Got You Here, Won't Get You There - Radical Focus - Leading Snowflakes: The Engineering Manager Handbook - The Manager's Path - The Coaching Habit - Thanks for the Feedback
on “Tips for moving into management [audio]” ↗Other book recommendations for preparing to be a PM: - Decode & Conquer - Inspired (Marty Cagan) - Radical Focus (about OKRs)
on “Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?” ↗…Azzarello: A really really great book on executing strategic change, that has a section about setting 'Control Points', which are roughly equivalent to what Intel/Google etc. refer to as 'Key Results' Radical Focus: A light read about OKRs. Good as a first book on OKRs, but not as detailed as the two books above. Introduction to OKRs: A very short book on OKRs. Good as a first book on OKRs if you have a short attention…
on “When targets and metrics are bad for business” ↗…to draw people out. 'kritiko mentioned their difficulty defining concrete measures for the outcome of their work. Can you tell me about the impact that's had on the team?' Re: #1, I recommend reading 'Radical Focus' and Move (Patty Azzarello). A PM should be able to define measures of impact, and be able to communicate why they are important. If they can't do that, how could anyone trust them to prioritize features/whatever?
on “Getting to the Product Manager interview stage” ↗Radical Focus by Christina Woldke Great book on a different method of managing goals and time, both in and out of a company setting.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Lots of good suggestions here. One I don't see is Wotdke's "Radical Focus". It's about OKRs, but don't be put off by prior big-corp experiences with it. The book focuses on using them in an entrepreneurial context and it's great. Even if you decide to come up with your own…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗Measure What Matters: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078FZ9SYB/ (also on Safari Books Online) Move: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9ZVTGG/ Radical Focus: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Focus-Achieving-Important-Obj... Introduction to OKRs: https://www.oreilly.com/business/free/files/introduction-to-... (I'm assuming this is the one, came up in Google…
on “When targets and metrics are bad for business” ↗…methodology but rather an approach that for a long time was passed around organically based on some key adjustments to MBO (Manage By Objectives) which came before it. E.g. How Measure What Matters and Radical Focus describe OKRs - two of the most popular books on the subject - differ quite a lot. I think finally there's some consensus that cascading OKRs is a bad practice but unfortunately people keep.doing it…
on “Improving OKRs” ↗