On TACOS and OKRs: Values and Frameworks

What are your organization’s principles? Did you have a unique approach when setting them up as a team? There is power in authenticity- growing your company culture from who you already are and accurately represent.

In this episode, Jenny speaks with Scott Shapiro, the current principal product marketing manager for B2B account management customer experience at Qualtrics. He has worked at Microsoft for five years in three different positions, where he joined straight after University and took on a major marketing role right away.

He describes how Qualtrics was unexpectedly acquired by SAP a while back and how he and his team have worked to maintain their company culture and OKRs trying not to get swallowed up in the pool of SAP’s way of doing things.

Listen in to learn the importance of getting feedback, advice, and insights in new ways that are impactful and rewarding rather than using traditional survey ideas. You will also learn how COVID-19 has accelerated and uncovered issues not too far from the surface and not slowed things contrary to what many might like to believe.

“When you establish or try to put together clear goals, you can take input from other people more clearly, you can figure out a more ambiguous task in a much more concrete way.” — Scott [35:06]

Show notes

• (0:58) Intro
• (2:33) Scott describes his first marketing role at Microsoft as a 22-year-old fresh from University fellow and other roles that followed where he learned from the best
• (9:28) He explains joining Qualtrics, how they were acquired by SAP, and how they learned to protect their company culture after the acquisition
• (6:24) Product marketing explained! How to add value as a product marketer and inspire the salesperson
• (20:17) How they use OKRs to prioritize and drop things off the list to create accountability and clear metrics to prioritize and focus on impact and not activity
• (26:18) How to take action and one OKR centered towards personal growth and the safety of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic
• (34:39) The purpose of creating a culture of overlapping and being comfortable with it in diversity and inclusion or customer service so as to create a concrete goal and set of actions
• (38:47) Scott explains the qualities to look for in a company that aligns with your values in their OKRs
• (43:07) The importance of companies getting an increased volume of responses like a digital open door in new ways to be successful and impactful
• (51:56) How they have mastered being fast in evolving at Qualtrics while keeping some of the great pieces triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the T.A.C.O.S concept
• (56:35) How the meaning of scrappy has changed over the last years and the difference between its meaning in a medium company and large corporation

Relevant links

• Qualtrics Website