CASE STUDY

How Prescinto Simplified OKR Implementation Using JOP


22 January 2024
2 min

Employees

Clean Energy Digital Platform

Location: Bangalore, Karnataka

Company Overview

Prescinto, an AI-powered digital analytics platform, helps boost clean energy performance by 5-7% in solar and wind plants using intelligent algorithms.

It’s already optimizing 14,000+ MWs of Solar and Wind Projects across 14 countries for industry leaders like SoftBank Energy, Macquarie, and Radiance Renewables.

Moreover, the company is teaming up with Energy Storage companies to smooth out clean energy availability, hastening the shift towards renewables.

When JOP contacted the company, they were already using OKRs but were struggling to align their remote team well with the overall goals and leverage the OKR framework.

So, the partnership began, and JOP helped Prescinto identify current gaps in OKR implementation to make it sustainable.

Everyone on the team now understands how they contribute to the company-level objectives.

Deepanjali Khurana ( Assistant VP – Strategy)

Challenges they were trying to address

The company operating from Bangalore works regularly with its remote team members in India, the US, and Spain.

Working with such a team structure, they considered OKRs as the best approach to align all their team members with each other and the top business priorities.

While this looks easy on the surface, they began facing several issues in managing and implementing their OKRs to really see the improvement in business performance.

1. Aligning remote teams with the in-office team

The company’s remote teams often faced communication and alignment issues compared to in-office teams, leading to misinterpretation of goals, reduced collaboration, and potential inefficiencies.

This could result in disjointed efforts, misaligned objectives, and a decreased ability to work cohesively towards common company goals.

2. Managing OKRs efficiently on Excel

Dependency on Excel for OKR management impeded efficient goal-setting, inhibited tracking progress effectively, and affected the ability to derive insights promptly, hindering the team’s agility and responsiveness in achieving set objectives.

It also led to data inconsistencies, version control challenges, and a lack of centralized information.

3. Assigning OKR-based actions on Excel

The company also felt it became increasingly difficult to assign specific tasks to their team members regularly.

While they could discuss the progress on OKRs in Excel during their check-ins, assigning them to the same platform was inefficient.

They had the templates for it, but doing it manually on a spreadsheet felt like a waste of time when people had to delegate actions, update progress, and attach relevant files to them.

4. Collaboration and OKR reviews were time-taking

Implementing OKRs across the organization required a structured approach, clear communication, and active engagement of the team.

Poorly executed OKR implementation on Excel limited the buy-in from teams, reduced enthusiasm, and reduced the effectiveness of the OKRs in driving performance improvements.

Partnering with JOP to overcome these hurdles

Both parties started by analyzing the current situation in the company. How are they managing their OKRs? Are they quality goals? Do these goals align with current top priorities?

1. Analysis of gaps in existing OKR rollout

Identifying gaps in the existing OKR rollout was crucial to understanding why the current implementation might fall short. The engagement in brainstorming sessions with JOP aimed to pinpoint these gaps accurately.

Managing OKRs in Excel posed challenges like limited scalability, version control issues, and lack of real-time tracking. This hindered collaboration and data accuracy.

Transitioning to JOP’s OKR platform was a step towards resolution. The team members could now have individual dashboards to manage their goals and align with the company’s top priorities.

However, after onboarding JOP, they could still find gaps in creating well-aligned and meaningful goals. That’s why JOP’s OKR experts worked with the top leaders to simplify the company’s OKRs.

2. Brainstorming sessions with top management to refine OKRs

Collaborative sessions with top management were vital to align OKRs with the company’s overarching vision and objectives.

Initially, JOP guided leaders in identifying precise business goals and priorities. This helped in framing meaningful OKRs aligned with the company’s strategic direction.

JOP facilitated a comprehensive reassessment of Prescinto’s existing OKR rollout strategy, ensuring that OKRs were well-defined and effectively linked to the broader company goals.

JOP’s team assisted them in the alignment and cascading of these refined goals throughout the organization, ensuring every team and employee understood their role in achieving these objectives.

This kind of alignment through OKRs would now encourage their remote team members to coordinate well with the rest of the team members and stay on track toward the company goals.

3. Delegating OKR champions and training them

Assigning OKR Champions was crucial for sustaining and driving OKR adoption within Prescinto.

With Prescinto, JOP identified OKR Champions from the Founder’s office. For instance, the company appointed Deepanjali Khurana, Assistant VP – Strategy, as their main OKR Champion.

These champions were key team members responsible for ensuring smooth ongoing OKR implementation.

Weekly stand-up calls were scheduled with JOP Champions to provide continual training, address any implementation issues, and offer guidance for improvement.

JOP equipped these champions with the necessary skills to evaluate their OKR strategy periodically, fostering sustainability over time.

4. Monthly and quarterly retrospective meetings to check OKR implementation

Regular retrospective meetings were crucial to assess the progress and effectiveness of the OKR implementation.

During these meetings, JOP interacted regularly with Prescinto’s leadership, enabling them to identify gaps or improvement areas in the OKR implementation.

JOP advised OKR Champions to promote specific best practices, such as using Smart Check-ins through JOP, maintaining meeting notes, and assigning actions on the platform.

These practices facilitated efficient tracking, accountability, and alignment with the OKRs.

Results Prescinto expects to see

The company already understands the value of using OKRs for better and aligned teamwork and focused execution of goals.

When JOP came in, they could see the bigger picture of their business more clearly and knew a certain roadmap with where to go with this enhanced goal-setting.

1. Higher revenue

Focusing on key business priorities, such as expanding the user base through OKRs, directly aligns with the company’s revenue growth strategy.

By aligning teams with a focus on increasing platform users through OKRs, Prescinto anticipates a direct impact on revenue growth. This strategic alignment ensures concerted efforts toward revenue-driving objectives.

2. Effective check-ins and the use of OKRs

Regular OKR check-ins and thoughtful discussions signify a shift towards a more structured and transparent approach to goal tracking and alignment.

With ongoing check-ins and discussions, Prescinto expects enhanced accountability, clearer communication, and a better understanding of progress. This approach promotes a culture of continuous improvement, driving teams towards achieving their OKRs efficiently.

Team managers and leaders have become more efficient in reviewing their team members’ progress transparently on JOP and giving constructive feedback.

Deepanjali Khurana ( Assistant VP – Strategy)

3. Continuous action planning on JOP using OKRs

Integrating core business priorities as OKRs and promoting action planning signifies a commitment to actionable goal setting and progress tracking.

Encouraging every team member to add actions on JOP ensures a collective effort towards moving the progress bar on OKRs. This approach emphasizes proactive action and accountability, fostering a culture of execution and goal attainment.

4. End-of-quarter insights and implementation check

Reflecting on OKR implementation at the end of the quarter and seeking expert guidance denotes a commitment to continuous improvement and learning.

The end-of-quarter reflection process, supported by JOP’s OKR experts, enables Prescinto to derive valuable insights into their OKR implementation.

These insights drive actionable improvements, leading to a refined implementation plan that aligns better with the company’s strategic objectives.

The collaboration with experts helps the OKR Champions and leadership to design an enhanced implementation strategy for future quarters, ensuring a more effective OKR execution process.

CHALLENGEs

Aligning remote and in-office teams

Managing OKRs on Excel

Assigning initiatives on Excel

Time taking collaboration and OKR reviews

ADDRESSING CHALLENGES WITH JOP

Assessing gaps in OKR implementation

Working with top management to improve OKRs

Training OKR champions

Holding regular meetings to review OKR implementation

EXPECTED RESULTS

Increased revenue

Efficient check-ins and OKR execution

Continual action planning on JOP

Quarterly implementation evaluation