Prioritization isn’t hard - but the foundation is missing

Prioritization isn’t hard because people don’t know what they’re doing. It’s hard because the foundation is rarely solid.

Prioritization and value creation often feel like bingo. The real issue is that the foundation isn’t strong enough. Company strategy feels distant, and product strategy becomes too broad and vague — creating very little ownership.
What I learned is that relevant market research, aligned with the right development stage, almost guarantees value creation. Priorities become fact-based — and more importantly, based on the right facts, in the right context, so we meet real needs and generate measurable market success.

This reminds me to step back, slow down, and look carefully at the first steps. Maybe more of us should put real weight on proper insight before running forward.

What’s your experience with this?

Confession: It often feels like giving up on OKRs after your first cycle.

 

Every time I run an OKR workshop, there’s always someone (or several!) who gets stuck on the exact wording.

-The definitions feel like strict recipes.
-Because the whole language is new, people stress, overanalyze, and quickly lose the big picture.
-Last but not least, they lose motivation and doubt the process.

OKRs for Dummies (by Paul Niven) reminded me of something simple but powerful:
You don’t need to get OKRs perfect from the start—just get them going.
Excuse my French: Don’t expect your first OKRs to be flawless.
Expect them to feel weird—and do them anyway.

Progress over perfection.

📘 Inspired by Paul Niven’s “OKRs for Dummies”
👉 How did your first OKR cycle feel?