OKRs Q&A Podcast Ep. 64: Insight from Unlock:OKR CEO | Sriraj Mallick, CEO of Infopro Learning & Unlock:OKR
In this episode of the OKRs Q&A Podcast, Tim Meinhardt interviews Sriraj Mallick, CEO of Infopro Learning & Unlock:OKR. Tim and Sriraj discuss Sriraj’s thoughts about OKRs and how Unlock:OKR came to be. Sriraj also shares with us his insight and analysis of the current marketplace and his view on where he sees the marketplace evolving over the near term and into the next decade. This conversation is a lot of fun, and we even get to hear Sriraj discuss with us how he personally discovered OKRs and his organization’s journey using OKRs. This episode is packed with wisdom and insight and provides fantastic information for any organization looking to take advantage of something new in the OKR Software marketplace.
To learn more about Unlock:OKR visit https://unlockokr.com.
To download a free copy of Atruity’s free e-book The Seven C’s To OKR Success – click on this link: https://atruity1.com/seven-cs-to-okr-success-e-book/
If you are interested in working with the Atruity team or have a question you would like addressed on the show, please email contact@atruity1.com or visit our website at www.atruity1.com
Tim Meinhardt:
Welcome everyone to another exciting episode of the OKRs Q&A Podcast, also known as the OKR Corral, where OKR insight is the king. I’m your host, Tim Meinhardt, President and CEO of Atruity, an OKR consultancy headquartered in our nation’s capital.
Before we begin, if you’re an OKR fan and enjoy our podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and explore our website at www.atruity1.com. And finally, should you have a burning question you’d like addressed in future episodes, please drop us a note at contact@atruity1.com.
In this exciting episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Sriraj Malik, CEO of Infopro Learning and CEO of Unlock:OKR, a product of Infopro Learning. We discuss Sriraj’s thoughts about OKRs and how Unlock:OKR came to be. Sriraj also shares with us his insight and analysis of the current marketplace and his view on where he sees the marketplace evolving over the near term and into the next decade. This conversation is a lot of fun, and we even get to hear Sriraj discuss how he discovered OKRs and his organization’s journey using OKRs. This episode is packed with wisdom and insight, and provides fantastic information for any organization looking to take advantage of something new in the OKR software marketplace. So please grab that cup of coffee, plug in those earbuds and enjoy my delightful conversation with Sriraj Mallick.
So Sriraj, welcome to the program. Tell our audience a little bit about yourself, how your organization got started, and what you are now involved with in Unlock:OKR.
Sriraj Mallick:
Thank you, Tim. Thank you for having me in your podcast. My company, Unlock:OKR, is actually a product of Infopro Learning, which has been in the market for over 25 years. It’s a well-known, reputed global talent development and workforce transformation organization, and what it does is it provides training, skill development, leadership development, training programs. It does training strategy and change management for large Fortune 1000 organizations. And one of the unique, fascinating aspects of Infopro Learning is its purpose and our core belief in unlocking potential. And that’s what drew me to this amazing organization that we have all built together. And so mostly a professional services organization for the last 25 years, last year is when we embraced OKRs. And you know, in one of our strategy, you know, conversations, we were thinking of launching OKR as a product because it helped us further our core purpose of unlocking potential of business leaders and businesses. And so that was a trigger point to develop this product.
Tim Meinhardt:
Terrific. You know, I love the fact that it’s unlocking potential. You know, I’m a firm believer and I’ve been involved with the OKRs and OKR methodology now for several years, and it does unlock that potential within an organization. You know, you mentioned about, you know, change management and developing that strategy, and it’s just the logical extension of what it is that your parent organization is all about. So, what are your thoughts about the recent market changes in the OKR software landscape?
Sriraj Mallick:
Well, I think, specifically, looking back to last few months, Microsoft putting their hat into the market is a huge confidence building, you know, sign in the market. You know, we feel that this is one of several steps towards having OKRs in the mainstream market, you know. I feel today we are still in an early adopter’s market. But Microsoft triggered a series of cascading effects in the market that will allow some of its other competitors to also put their hat in. In the next seven to ten years, we will solidify the market; there will be at least three to four good, strong leaders coming out. But more importantly, I believe there will be some niche leaders with operating in certain industries or certain use cases, which are very, very sort of narrow but focused and doing very well there. So I feel like we still have at least ten to 15 years to just see how the market would shape up and for all the leaders to come up.
Tim Meinhardt:
Yeah, you know, I agree with you and, you know, Microsoft made that big boom in the marketplace in buying Ally.io and you know, and they have, you know, I kind of like their thought process a little bit, you know, they’re all about this employee experience with this VEBA add on to their SharePoint environment. And I like the word “employee experience.” You know, I think what we look at is, what is your employee experience? Are you giving those folks the empowering nature and that framework from your organization where there’s trust and failure is not a fire-able offense? I think John Doerr put that very well. And so, I agree with you. I think we’re in a very early stage of…still early stage, of really what OKRs are bringing to the marketplace. And I believe that you’re right, there’s going to be probably three or four major leaders here as it shakes out over the next seven, seven to ten years. And I also like your point about the niche providers as well. So, I think that that will also be in the marketplace as we continue to move forward.
Sriraj Mallick:
Right. There’s also an additional point, that I feel like even for current providers, I think this whole remote work, what it has done is created this huge crisis of employee engagement. You know, in general, we were having this problem anyway. And I feel OKRs…people will turn to OKRs, and those tools would do a good job in crafting these engagement experience. Right? Engagement experiences will succeed. So, I think there is some opportunity there in the market to look at engagement also as a good use case within the right now.
Tim Meinhardt:
I couldn’t agree with you more and I find it fascinating that, you know, we were right in the throes of it as a consulting organization, I actually had a particular client that we literally were doing this as they were shutting everything down. And that ability to have that visualization and be able to see what everybody’s working on. You know, we talk about changing conversations, horizontal and vertical alignment. But realistically, you know, it is that employee engagement that really what we found was they felt engaged. And you know, we preach a certain methodology and an approach to how you should communicate with your OKR program and through having those OKRs, having that visibility, being able to see what everybody is involved with, knowing that you’re still in line in lockstep with things as they’re changing. And, you know, I mean, when we think about it, Sriraj, you know, all these organizations were changing dynamically on the fly when COVID hit. But here’s the point that I really like to make is so were their clients and their customers.
Sriraj Mallick:
Correct.
Tim Meinhardt:
So that re-learning and knowing that, “Hey, I’m OK, what’s going on the left of me and the right of me, and kind of above me and below me?” So, I couldn’t agree with you more that this remote work…and it’s here to stay. So it’s not like it’s going away. So, you know, creating that environment where the employee can take a look at what’s going on, not only with what in his line of work and what we’re doing to kind of be able to drive the organization forward based on our duties and responsibilities. But you know what’s going on overall with the company and being able to see that in a visual fashion, I think is really, truly empowering.
Sriraj Mallick:
Absolutely, I agree.
Tim Meinhardt:
So where do you see the marketplace in the short term and what should we be expecting this year?
Sriraj Mallick:
A lot of platform companies are trying to become the work operating environment for most organizations, Teams is one example. I’m pretty sure Slack is doing that integration. I feel just thinking about use of the tool in the flow of work is a very important concept. How do you make employees engage with the OKR mechanics of OKRs without having to leave their current flow of work or with minimum interruption to the current flow of work? I think that’s a good use case. I think there’s some opportunity there for all of us to do a much better job. The second is just integration points with other software. So, if you are in I.T. or you are in the service side of the business or are a manufacturing company, every organization has some standard platform that they will spend maybe 25 to 30% or more of the time just doing the day-to-day activity. I think just embedding or integrating that in your overall work design is going to be important, something that I truly believe in.
Tim Meinhardt:
Before we continue with the interview. We’d like to tell you a little bit about Atruity.
Voiceover:
At Atruity we understand the challenge of implementing a successful OKR program. While the methodology may be straightforward and easy to understand, the implementation and execution of the program can seem daunting. Your team is concerned because you’re unsure how to properly implement or manage your OKR program. You are not alone. This is where Atruity comes in. We know how to implement an OKR program and are experts in OKR implementation and management. By using our proven methods and implementation structure, we can help you to successfully implement OKRs within your organization in as little as 30 days. If your organization is considering implementing OKRs or struggling with the management of the program, do not hesitate to reach out to us at contact@atruity1.com. Remember, no plan succeeds on its own—execution is everything.
Tim Meinhardt:
Getting into that flow of the process, understanding how to run an OKR program—really complicated. And yet at the same time, we don’t want to create an environment where people just get confused. If the software needs to be simplistic, it needs to have that user friendliness to it, that they can go and find it. And it’s comfortable for them and somewhat intuitive. And I like that about Unlock:OKRs. But honestly, I think the simplistic nature of what you offer is a differentiator in the marketplace. And then I do see that continual integration, because you’re right, people get comfortable with where they work. I use this funny example, that imagine, I mean, we operate on Google. OK, so we have Gmail and everything else. You go to Microsoft…and I used to be on Microsoft. OK. So, try changing emails. Just email systems. I mean, you’re like it…it’s unproductive for a while to get the hang of it. And then you realize, “Oh my gosh, now if I had to go back to Microsoft, I’d be confused again.” So that knowing where you work and being able to put the tool inside there so that you don’t lose any stride during your day, I think is going to be continued to be a big, big focal point for organizations as they move forward.
Sriraj Mallick:
I agree with you. Absolutely.
Tim Meinhardt:
So, let’s talk a little bit about Unlock:OKR specifically. What do you think, based upon your insight in the marketplace, makes your software somewhat unique in the OKR marketplace?
Sriraj Mallick:
So first off, you know, we are still very early in the market. We have three revenues right now. Quarter two is when we are just going out with a first formal launch like full-fledged launch. We were in a soft launch phase right now, so a lot of what I just shared in my thinking is what we are thinking about. Different use cases for Unlock:OKR take us some time. We know that a lot of players who have had an early mover’s advantage. However, in our DNA, there is something that makes us extremely suitable for a product like OKR, and that is our background in change management. workforce transformation, and talent development. And so, what we will bring to the table uniquely is, like we are thinking about how, not only just in terms of making the product simpler and having all these amazing features, but also what will drive adoption. How will leaders really achieve their goals? What happens when someone in your team has not reached their goal? And so how do you do those conversations like a coaching conversation or a feedback conversation or a, you know, or a one-to-one discussion just to provide some recognition or coaching? And so, the whole CFR part of OKRs is very important and critical for our success. The whole implementation and training is a critical of part of our success. And with that, we feel we are going to launch something called the Unlock Scale Academy. And what this academy will do is allow selected leaders in a client’s organization to go through a cohort-based training program around how to drive from strategy to execution, and drive for results, right? How do you scale in organizations and so forth? So, there is that whole piece, but I feel how I’ll put it together is we will differentiate ourselves in our ability to take our leaders, our customers, from setting goals and aligning that organization around those goals, to getting to results. We will build that muscle much, much stronger and that’s our forte with Unlock:OKR.
Tim Meinhardt:
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. So, I’m going to leave this discussion here with one kind of last question. So. people looking around at OKRs, you know, they’ve read a book, they’ve seen a video, they are considering things. What kind of insight would you provide organizations that are looking to begin this OKR journey?
Sriraj Mallick:
I would say start today. It’s not complicated. When I did it…I’ll tell you a story, Tim, it’s a fascinating story. When I became the CEO of Infopro Learning and I was given this amazing responsibility within the first one year, we were growing our business and I realized that I don’t have the tools, or I would do much better as the leader if I had the right tools to scale and drive my organization and align it because we were becoming bigger and bigger. And all those sorts of problems are creeping in the company. And I remember I was in my New York City office and going back home to take a train ride, and I saw this meeting pop up on my cell phone saying there’s a meetup on something called OKRs. And so, I walked away from the train station and went to this meetup and said, “What is this OKRs?” because he was talking about alignment and aspirational goals and strategies and things like that. So, I spend one hour, and it was one of the most game changing one hours that I’ve spent—I took a lot of notes. And then for one hour on my train ride, I started transcribing my handwritten notes in an Excel document with some dates, and I sent this to my leadership team and said, “Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I want to discuss this because we are going to do this.” And so, we started with an Excel sheet, brought in the leadership team first, and then, my God, it’s been like four or five years now. It has just…and I say this to everyone, because I started, and I didn’t wait for getting it right the first time. What happened is in its worst form, I would say my first attempt at implementing OKRs was really not as good as it should have been, right? And in that form itself, it gave me a lot of benefits. And so, then I started learning and going deeper, and we did it right because there’s tremendous value in getting all the right consultants to do this right because the upside is huge. So, then I went into that direction and that was a story, first using it on ourselves, and then we saw that it unlocked our own potential of our business. We said, “How about giving this to our clients?”
Tim Meinhardt:
Right, yeah. No, absolutely.
Sriraj Mallick:
And I would say to all business leaders and CEOs, start now.
Tim Meinhardt:
Right. Yeah, you know, I agree with you. I’m going to share a funny story with you and with our audience. So, when I started Atruity, and this is several years ago, probably about four or five years ago when you were at…somebody had said to me, “You know, you need to read this book, Measure What Matters.” And I got like an hour into the book, and I went, “Oh my, this is game changing.” And I had that same “aha” moment. Like, I couldn’t read the book fast enough. I couldn’t go online and look at all the videos. Anything I could find about this, OKR world. And so, your story just resonated with me completely. And you know, we teach that it’s OK to just start your journey. OK, let’s help you get the framework right. But let’s start your journey; some people don’t have that excellent background that you had in change management and company transformation.
Sriraj Mallick:
I agree with you.
Tim Meinhardt:
Look, let’s get started here, and let’s not let perfect get in the way of really good, because when you take something from nothing and then it lays itself out and you can see everything, it’s transformative for your organization and as they continue to work with it, people get better with it—their own intelligence—because it empowers people and employees in your organization to ask those heavy questions. “Hey, what’s the most important thing that we need to do as it relates to the overall objectives and key results for the organization, and somebody above us?” So, I love that story and it really, truly resonates that “get started.” And you’ll be amazed at how quickly and every quarter you learn something new. You know, that reflective period where you’re scoring and asking yourself, you know, “Did I have the right ones? Did we challenge ourselves hard enough? What did I as a manager need to do to move things out of the way so that people could be their absolute best at what it is that they wanted to do?” So, I just love that story. And yeah, that’s terrific. So anyways, Sriraj, I want to thank you so much for being on our program today. Your insight’s fantastic, and I have to have you back. And for those of people that don’t know how to find Unlock:OKR, tell them, how do they find you all? And what’s the process of getting started?
Sriraj Mallick:
Absolutely. Thank you, Tim. Thank you. You can go to https://unlockokr.com. Start with the sign up and we will give you a first-class concierge service and an OKR consultant would be on a phone call with you and help you through the kickoff process and give you a playbook to set it up in your organization. It’s as simple as that.
Tim Meinhardt:
Wonderful. Well, I just want to say, Sriraj, thank you so much for being on the program today, and I wish you all the success this year, as I think I’m hoping everyone great success this year. 2022 is going to be a great year. So, thank you.
Sriraj Mallick:
Thank you so much for having me.
Tim Meinhardt:
You’re quite welcome. Have a wonderful day.
Sriraj Mallick:
You too. Bye bye.
Tim Meinhardt:
Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to listen to our OKRs Q&A Podcast. You know, OKRs provide such an excellent, agile framework which is critical for today’s business needs. It’s such a pleasure to have such wonderful people share their stories and journeys with us. Please, should you ever need assistance with your OKR journey, do not hesitate to reach out to us and contact us at www.atruity1.com, and make sure if you have a minute, to rate our show. Have a great week. Stay healthy. And of course, stay happy. Thanks, everyone.
