WorkBoard Puts OKRs in Broader Strategic Framework With Latest Release
OKR software provider WorkBoard announced the launch of a new product, WoBo Strategy and a new feature, Collaboration Canvases at its recent Accelerate Conference. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company stated in the release that, with the additions, it now provided the "first full strategy execution stack" to help organizations align long-term strategy with shorter-term goals.
“We continue to remain industry innovators and have just introduced the first full strategy execution stack with our new strategy product and collaboration canvases. These offerings enable organizations to align long-range strategy with quarterly OKRs efficiently across the organization and drive strategy execution more effectively,” said Deidre Paknad, CEO and co-founder of WorkBoard.
Introducing WoBo Strategy and Collaboration Canvases
WoBo Strategy provides a tool for organizations to track how quarterly objectives and key results (OKR) feed into a multi-year strategy. The single page visualization is aimed at helping teams recognize how their work feeds into and relates to an organization's broader goals. WoBo Strategy complements the company's portfolio of performance management tools, including WoBo Objectives, WoBo Meetings & Workstreams and WoBo Analytics.
Collaboration Canvases is the latest in a growing trend of visual collaboration tools. The tool pulls in data from other WorkBoard products to inform team discussions with the goal of making it easier for all teammates to participate, regardless of their location. The feature includes three appropriately named canvases:
- Strategy Canvas — Includes templates and coaching to lead teams through a discussion of long-term strategies. The results of the conversation are publishable and mappable to OKRs.
- OKR Canvas — Provides coaching to help teams establish OKRs as well as insight into other teams' OKRs to ensure alignment. Once again, the results are publishable and measurable.
- Retro Canvas — A retrospective of previous work to base team discussions on lessons learned and room for improvement.
“These platform advancements stem from WorkBoard’s deep expertise and leadership in the strategy execution domain, and high intimacy with its customers. WorkBoard’s revenues have come from existing customers expanding adoption. WorkBoard works closely with these customers to identify gaps and opportunities and innovate to find and productize a solution. WorkBoard is the market leader in Strategy Execution Management and has a rich history of releasing new capabilities since inception in 2013. WoBo Strategy and Collaboration Canvases are the latest in this innovation,” said Paknad.
The Canvases are currently available for WorkBoard customers, with WoBo Strategy expected later this Spring.
Objectives and Key Results in the Spotlight
The objectives and key results (OKR) approach to goal management has been around since the 1970s but gained popularity in more recent years when Google co-founder Larry Page credited the method in part for the company's growth.
Learning Opportunities
Daryoush Paknad and Deirdre Paknad founded WorkBoard in 2013 and count Betterworks, Perdoo, Trello among their competitors in what they call the "strategy execution" space. It counts AstraZeneca, Ford, Microsoft, Walmart and Zendesk among its clients.
WorkBoard was last in the news in May 2021 following a successful $75 million Series D fundraising round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, Workday Ventures and M12, as well as new investors Capital One Ventures and SBV Capital. The company has raised $141.6 million to date.
Venture capitalists have been pouring money into the OKR software market as organizations increasingly look to keep remote and distributed teams aligned on short-term goals at a time of market volatility. Competitor Lattice reached a $3 billion valuation in January following a Series F funding round which brought in $175 million. Culture Amp, which includes an OKR performance solution in its employee experience platform, landed a $100 million funding round in July 2021 which brought its valuation to $2 billion.
The WorkBoard product roadmap has a monthly release schedule for platform updates, so we'll be following for future releases.
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About the Author
Gabrielle Rodgers is an editorial intern for Simpler Media Group, joining the team in the fall of 2021. Gabrielle is currently a digital media major at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and expects to earn her Bachelor’s in 2022.
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