TL;DR:
This post is a few days late for the start of 3Q 2022, but my broad intent for use of the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework is (i) to memorialize my personal OKRs at the beginning of each quarter (this post, for 3Q 2022) and (ii) reflect on performance relative to goals at the end of each quarter (future post).
- There are so many Web3 organizations to explore, it’s overwhelming. I initially kept a very wide aperture and was trying to be a sponge, but I think I have a good enough lay of the land and should now focus my time much more narrowly to feel like I’m accomplishing something and to build the right network
- I tend to be a bit of a cat on a laser at times and my curiosity can quickly get the best of me. Deliberate focus and measurable accountability is a useful tool for me.
- For 3Q 2022, my objectives are:
- Attain proficiency with on chain data and analytics tools
- Make Optimism my L2 neighborhood and network with my neighbors
- Continue to consume and create Web3 ecosystem content to build knowledge and reputation
- Be an active member of the Mfers and Mfers Ahead communities
- In my experience, many Web0-Web2 organizations are not very good at goal setting and performance monitoring. Organizational accountability is a struggle, and individual accountability (daily, weekly, etc.) is just as bad
- I think OKRs are a useful way to create goal and incentive legos top to bottom throughout (centralized and decentralized) organizations and could be an excellent tool for Web3 organizations
If you possess domain expertise or are generally interested in my objectives topic areas, please (i) read on and (ii) interact with the companion TWEET to this post. I’d love to learn from other Web3 community members experiences and network with individuals on a similar Web3 path to the one I’m walking.
Overview of Objectives and Key Results methodology
There are many different frameworks to choose from for goal setting or performance measurement, the flavor I favor is OKRs. I generally stick to the the Measure What Matters framework based on the book authored by John Doerr as there is good free and paid content to help deploy the framework. I try not overcomplicate or over customize the process, I just stick to a proven model and focus more time on the execution and outcomes.
I’ll keep the overview very basic, but measure what matters frames Objectives as the “what”, or:
An objective is what you want to do. It describes your mission-supporting goal and sets a deadline for achieving it.
Key results are framed as the “why”, or:
Objectives must be paired with a roadmap that will help you know whether or not you’re on the path to meeting your goals…Key Results…are the benchmarks you can measure that track your progress toward the Objective.
Currently, many of my key results are more akin to “tasks” and are quite subjective in measurement (or even binary). This essentially underutilizes the power of OKRs, but is still useful until more measurable goals are achievable.
For example, once some traction is achieved related to creation of analytics dashboards, I could have more measurable key results of (i) tweet interaction counts (i.e., 10,000 impressions on analytics dashboard tweets) or (ii) flipside crypto profile follows (i.e., 1,000 new followers). My daily tasks could be to “create more dashboards” or “tweet / retweet dashboard outputs and key insights”, “reply on other Flipside / Dune users tweets or dashboards”, “join more Dune groups”, etc. If well thought out and successful, tasks should drive the measurable outcomes I seek which in turn support the objective.
Objective 1 (O1): Attain proficiency with on chain data and analytics tools
I’m a data and analytics professional IRL and one of the major pain points I have when analyzing Web0-Web2 companies is a very wide range of data availability and data quality, skewing towards data unavailability and / or terrible data hygiene. Aside from all of the ideological and new financial system drivers I like about Web3, data availability and decipherable structure is also a big draw to Web3 for me.
That said, most of my career experiences were more finance and accounting focused to evaluate company performance (i.e., excel jockey). I recently shifted focus to applying data and analytics to my business performance and unit economics analysis lens, but have primarily leveraged code free tools and don’t currently consider myself a developer or a data engineer / data scientist (though I plan to get there).
Most of my time is spent using tools like Alteryx (data structuring, blending, enhancing, general ETL) and PowerBI (business intelligence tool for dashboards). I’ve lead teams which utilize MySQL, Databricks, Python, R, etc., but I have not had an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of these tools personally for various reasons.
My primary objective for 3Q 2022 is to equip myself with the right tools to enable the creative data and analytics driven analyses I do IRL, on chain.
Key Result 1 (KR1): Complete BI Foundations on Coursera with SQL, ETL and Data Warehousing Specialization
The goal is to enable on chain much of the know how I currently have off chain. I’m initially focused on the Dune Analytics and Flipside Crypto platforms, which are primarily SQL based with relatively basic visualization output options.
KR2: Create two Flipside Crypto dashboards and publish on Twitter
Getting started is the key.
KR3: Create two Dune Analytics dashboards and publish on Twitter
Getting started is the key.
KR4: Get access to the Flipside Crypto Shroom DK (SDK) and structure two queries (bonus for a dashboard)
I’m not exactly sure how the packaging of an SDK output feeds into dashboard outputs, so this one will probably require more baseline research. I’ll start small with just figuring out how to query the SDK with the Shroom DK NFT.
May be a carryforward KR to 4Q 2022.
KR5: Evaluate if Flipside “God Mode” NFT is worth buying (Bonus if purchased)
The God Mode NFT enables ungated access to all bounties on the Flipside Crypto platform. Bounties are budgets provided by various networks, dApps, protocols, etc. and typically operate on a first come first serve basis (i.e., if you don’t complete the bounty quickly, you may not earn). God Mode allows the holder to complete any bounty at any time, thus increasing their ability to participate in the emerging work-to-earn movement.
It probably makes sense to try a few bounties before purchasing the God Mode NFT.
May be a carryforward KR to 4Q 2022.
KR6: Inquire into the Messari + The Graph collaboration and how to get involved
Not likely anything actionable in 3Q 2022 on this topic, but it would be very interesting to be involved in developing a set of industry / ecosystem standard data tables and analyses for use going forward, which I think is the genesis of the Messari + The Graph collaboration. The closer a data analyst is to the design choices made in development of these standards, the greater their understanding of how to interpret the data and what the ecosystem values (in my opinion).
May be a carryforward KR to 4Q 2022.
O2: Make Optimism my L2 neighborhood and network with my neighbors
I think that Optimism is going to be my L2 neighborhood in the suburbs. I like the concept of regen finance and using MEV from transactions on chain to finance retroactive public goods funding.
As Jinlang Wang so eloquently said on the Bankless Podcast (around 46:00 and 51:00), the Optimism team wants to reward and engage with anons who:
Give a F about [Optimism]…We want to create a body of citizens who give many Fs about the protocol.
Jinlang Wang
I do need to do some more research to better understand the technical nuances of the network, but I’ll dive in headfirst while I do as I’m Optimistic that I’ll find alignment based on what I’ve read thus far.
KR7: Complete Optimism token ($OP) delegate profile
I delegated my governance tokens to myself, but I need to figure out how to refine my delegate profile to appear more official (it was not obvious…).
KR8: Vote on all governance events in 3Q 2022
I don’t hold many tokens, but I plan to show up and begin to build credibility and show that I give many Fs.
KR9: Read, research, comment, and engage on the top ten discourse threads
Top 10 based on trailing quarter at time of research.
O3: Continue to consume and create Web3 ecosystem content to build reputation
KR10: Post 3Q 2022 OKR plan and results
This mirror post, and end of quarter mirror post.
KR11: Post more “This Web3 Life” content on Mirror
Post five new pieces of content outside of OKRs. Continue to write and better comprehend my Web3 journey so far and create a space where my ideas can incubate.
KR12: Read “The Network State” by Balaji
I’ve been waiting for this to drop for a while. I find Balaji to be very thought provoking and always a good read / listen.
KR13: Curate a list of thinkers to explore in 4Q 2022
This list will lead to multiple content consumption KRs in 4Q 2022. Who are your favorite thinkers? I tend to lean heavy Ethereum ecosystem, but will read anything that is insightful.
At this point, I plan to track down seminal long form content from:
Also, now that I’ve immersed in the ecosystem for about eight months now, I’d like to revisit:
O4: Be an active member of the Mfers and Mfers Ahead communities
The #Mfers community has been quietly buidling in the bear market and organizing ideas for what “community led” is going to mean for the collection going forward.
Will community led mean (i) a basic 4/7 multi sig with signors who are trusted to genuinely engage with holders or (ii) a scream into the void one token = one vote platform where every proposal requires a vote and no one takes the time to understand the framework they are making a proposal into (e.g., see Prop House Mfers proposal 425, which received the top number of votes but makes zero sense in the context of Nouns DAO seeding builder projects with ETH [as a nice gesture]).
I hope community led for Mfers ultimately means something in between romanettes i and ii above.
#MFA is the best Mfer derivative I’ve come across. Solid group of degens with a healthy mix of regen tendencies. Also counts 6/7 Mfer multi sig signors as active members in the discord 👀.
KR14: Engage with tweets, mirror posts, discord discussions or other proposed Mfer governance discussions
Now that the Nouns DAO Prop House voting has ended, there aren’t any imminent governance interactions that I’m aware of. I suspect we’ll see a discourse space for proposals or ideas, but in the mean I’ll be primarily reactionary this quarter given other priorities and generally actionability.
3Q 2022 OKR scorecard
I’ll recalibrate my approach as I iterate this OKR process quarter to quarter, but here are the priority weights by key result (and rolled up to objective).
Typically, 75% OKR attainment is considered very good. If 100% attainment is achieved, the OKRs are probably not audacious enough.
Broad OKR use in Web3
I’m currently using OKRs as a tool for my own self accountability. However, OKRs are generally optimized for flat organizations with lots of measurable data. I think that the current abstraction of Web3 organizations fits into that framework quite well.
One concept I am still wrestling with is the incentives overlay with OKRs. I believe the conventional wisdom is that OKRs are not directly tied to incentives. However, if well structured, OKRs should provide maximum visibility into what everyone in the organization can do to optimize the enterprise value (or network value / equity value) of an organization. As token / network / protocol ownership is a key promise of Web3 users and builders, this should result is positive value accrual to all users and builders.
For example, it’s easy to visualize a scenario where an organization’s DAO has four or five objectives which then spawn sub-DAOs to attack the key results. The key results for a sub-DAO could be reworded into an objective for that sub-DAO, and then community contributors create key results to achieve the sub-DAO level objective. This can continue to web down for as many layers as an organization has and the OKRs can be defined both bottom up and top down.
Given the on chain nature and decentralized workforce, much if not all of the key activities should be directly measurable.
If you want to hold me accountable as well or would like to drop some knowledge on me, be a reply guy / gal on this TWEET!
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