About the Company
Isabel Group is a leading provider of community-powered financial solutions that streamline data and money flows in a complex financial environment. With a suite of powerful platforms, including Isabel 6 (multi-bank payment platform), Ponto (open banking), Kube (verified corporate data), and IntelliSuite (fraud monitoring), Isabel Group ensures seamless, secure, and reliable financial transactions for its clients.
The Challenge
While Isabel Group's Technology Services Department has seen significant success, they also recognized some opportunities for improvement in their strategic goal-setting process. The existing approach, though well-intentioned, sometimes leaned more towards output-based objectives, which could occasionally result in less alignment across teams and divisions.
A few areas were identified for enhancement:
- Establishing regular review cycles and clear guidance for updating OKRs per shifting priorities.
- Strengthening the connection between day-to-day work in Jira and the broader company objectives.
- Bridging siloed goals across departments to support better cross-functional collaboration.
CTO, Tim Van der Wee, saw the potential of the OKR framework to address these areas. The aim was to bring more clarity and focus to the company's objectives, help teams direct their efforts toward impactful outcomes, and create a structured process for tracking progress.
The Solution
To overcome these challenges, we worked closely with Isabel Group to implement a fit-to-purpose OKR process. The key steps of the process included:
1. Reviewing existing OKRs
We began by conducting one-on-one sessions with OKR owners, reviewing existing objectives and refining them to be more outcome-based. This helped shift the focus from merely completing tasks to achieving meaningful results.
2. OKR training and foundation workshops
We provided OKR training to teams working with OKRs, emphasizing the distinction between outcomes and outputs. This training included real-life examples from the company’s existing OKRs, showcasing bad and good practices. The workshops guided teams on how to convert poor OKRs into effective ones.
3. Removing business-as-usual (BAU) from OKRs
To focus on driving change, we helped the teams understand the difference between BAU and OKRs. BAU tasks were tracked in Jira, while OKRs were reserved for important, transformative goals.
4. Implementing OKR check-ins
We established weekly OKR check-ins with structured discussions about each OKR. Teams were encouraged to comment on their OKRs before the check-in meetings, fostering better preparation and more meaningful conversations.
5. OKR cycle & workshops
To support continuous improvement, we introduced quarterly OKR retrospectives and goal-setting workshops.
The Results
The implementation of the OKR framework brought significant improvements to Isabel Group’s goal-setting process and overall strategic alignment.
OKRs are for the significant changes to achieve
The company eliminated unnecessary OKRs, focusing on the most critical objectives. This reduction made it easier for teams to concentrate on the key goals that would drive meaningful change.
Shift to outcome-based key results
Teams transitioned from input- and output-based key results to more outcome-focused OKRs, ensuring every objective contributed to real, measurable impact. It is not always possible to define an outcome-based key result, as it is quite often a lagging indicator, so we tried to have at least one outcome-based key result and the rest as output-based.
Structured weekly OKR check-ins
Regular check-ins became a habit, with teams updating their OKRs weekly. This created a culture of accountability and ensured that progress was tracked consistently.
Increased transparency on the progress of significant changes
Integrating OKRs into the Jira-based OKR board allowed Isabel Group to maintain a clear overview of progress. Dashboards provide visibility into how projects are advancing, helping teams stay aligned and communicate to stakeholders.
Conclusion
Through implementing the OKR framework, Isabel Group Technology department successfully transformed its approach to strategy execution. The department moved from output-focused goals to outcome-based objectives. The introduction of regular OKR Check-ins, retrospectives, and workshops helped establish a culture of continuous improvement.
By focusing on meaningful results and ensuring alignment across all levels of the organization, Isabel Group is well-positioned to continue its leadership in the fintech space, driving innovation and delivering value to its clients.
