Product Delivery Playbook >> Planning and Tracking
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Modern product teams need a way to connect their high-level strategic goals with the day-to-day work of the development team. A powerful way to achieve this is by combining the goal-setting framework of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) with the agile work hierarchy of Epics, Features, and Stories. This creates a clear line of sight from the company's biggest ambitions down to the individual tasks developers work on, ensuring that every effort is focused on what truly matters.
Setting the "Why" with OKRs
Setting the "Why" with OKRs
The planning process begins with setting the strategic direction using OKRs. This framework is not a list of tasks; it's a way to define and communicate the most important goals.
Objective (O): This is a high-level, ambitious, and inspirational goal for the team or company. It answers the question, "Where do we want to go?" An objective should be qualitative and motivating.
Example Objective: "Become the go-to platform for independent artists in Australia."
Key Results (KRs): These are the measurable, quantitative outcomes that prove you have achieved your objective.They answer the question, "How will we know we've arrived?" Each objective typically has 2-5 key results.
Example Key Results:
KR1: Increase the number of active monthly artists from 500 to 2,000.
KR2: Achieve a 4.8-star rating in the app store.
KR3: Reduce the average time to upload a new track from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
The OKRs define the "why" and "what" of your work for a given period, typically a quarter.
Defining the "How" with Epics, Features, and Stories
Defining the "How" with Epics, Features, and Stories
Once the strategic goals are clear, the team can break down the work required to achieve them using the agile hierarchy.This is the "how."
Epics: An Epic is a large body of work that is too big to be completed in a single sprint. It often directly corresponds to a Key Result. An Epic is a container for more detailed work.
Example Epic (linked to KR3): "Overhaul the music upload and processing workflow."
Features: An Epic is broken down into smaller, deliverable pieces of value called Features. A Feature should provide a tangible benefit to the user.
Example Features (for the Epic above):
"Implement one-click file selection from cloud services."
"Introduce a new, faster audio transcoding engine."
"Redesign the upload progress screen with real-time feedback."
User Stories: Each Feature is further broken down into small, actionable User Stories. A Story is the smallest unit of work and should be completable within a single sprint.
Example Story (for the transcoding Feature): "As an artist, I want my uploaded MP3 file to be converted to AAC format so that it is compatible with all mobile players."
Tracking Progress and Connecting the Dots
Tracking Progress and Connecting the Dots
The real power of this combined system comes from how it's tracked. The work is done at the bottom of the hierarchy, and the progress flows upwards.
Daily Tracking: The development team works on Stories. As they complete stories, the Feature they belong to moves closer to completion.
Weekly/Bi-Weekly Tracking: In sprint reviews, the team demonstrates completed Features. The completion of Features provides the tangible evidence that you are making progress on your Epic.
Quarterly Tracking: The completion of Epics is what should directly impact your Key Results. When the "Overhaul the music upload workflow" Epic is complete, you should see the data for your Key Result—"Reduce the average time to upload"—start to move in the right direction.
By linking these frameworks, tracking becomes a meaningful exercise. You're not just tracking activity (the number of stories completed); you're tracking impact. The completion of your day-to-day work provides the data that proves you are making progress against your most important strategic goals, creating a powerful and transparent system for planning and tracking in any modern product team.
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