Radical Focus

A business fable that teaches OKRs through storytelling. Christina Wodtke, drawing on her experience at companies like LinkedIn and Zynga, tells the story of Hanna and Jack, cofounders of a struggling tea startup who must learn to use OKRs with radical focus or lose their funding.

Why Read This

Where Doerr gives you the big picture and the case studies, Wodtke gives you the human experience of implementing OKRs for the first time. The fable format makes abstract concepts concrete. You watch Hanna and Jack struggle with the same problems every team faces: too many priorities, unclear ownership, and the temptation to chase every new opportunity instead of committing to one thing that matters.

The second half of the book shifts from fiction to practical guidance. Wodtke lays out how to set good OKRs, how to run weekly check-ins, how to grade results at the end of a cycle, and how to handle the emotional difficulty of admitting when a key result has failed. The second edition (2021) adds substantial new material on applying OKRs in larger organizations, making it relevant beyond the startup context of the fable.

Wodtke’s writing is direct and opinionated. She is not afraid to call out common mistakes: setting too many objectives, confusing key results with tasks, or treating OKRs as a performance review tool rather than a focusing mechanism.

What to Expect

A 254-page book divided into two parts: a readable business fable followed by a practical how-to section. The fable is engaging and the advice is specific. Shorter and more actionable than Measure What Matters, this is the book to read when you want to actually implement OKRs on Monday morning.