I am proud to present one of the Superheroes in the Weekdone community. Meet Scott Wolfe Jr. – CEO of zlien. Scott is the founder of zlien, which makes preliminary notices, lien waivers and mechanics lien compliance easy for businesses in the construction industry.
They help businesses like thyssenkrupp Elevator Corporation, Graybar Electric and Belfor to eliminate the administrative headaches and legal guesswork associated with financial risk and mechanical compliance.
Within a year they have doubled in size from 20 to 40 employees and continue to progressively move forward. They needed a good management method and tool to be successful. We are going to take a closer look on how zlien found it and how it benefits their team.
zlien needed an OKRs management tool
Get a quick overview of OKRs from our Objectives and Key Results infographic.
In 2015, one of the zlien team members suggested using Objectives and Key Results methodology. They first tested it with their technology team, but quickly included the department managers as well. At first, they used 7Geese, but were not that happy with it and started looking for other tools out there.
Meanwhile, they started implementing the OKRs process throughout the organization. They looked at a few other solutions like Betterworks, but in the end they liked Weekdone OKR functionality the most. “I like the structure that Weekdone offers and how it breaks down each department and team” said Scott.
All in all, they chose Weekdone, because Weekdone operates constantly, so you can look at a glance what everyone is working on and how the OKRs are moving along. “OKR process is very good for us and Weekdone is a good tool to manage that” said Scott.
“Weekdone puts your team in the habit of going in each week and updating what you are working on.”
As mentioned, Scott likes the weekly reporting format, because you can put a deadline on plans and make sure people use it all the time. Otherwise, it might takes weeks before anyone updates their work flow. Also, it makes the managers go in and look if the employees have updated their info. “It’s a very useful tool to favor that kind of interaction” said Scott.
Furthermore, Scott said: “The insights people provide on their reports are very valuable to our managers”. According to Scott, people are more open to writing about problems and opportunities in a report format. Otherwise they would not talk about it.
To conclude, Weekdone makes Scott and other leaders in the company confident that their reports are updated and the information is relevant. “These updates give me insight into their minds and it also makes sure the info is current and accurate” said Scott.
Weekdone PPP reports used as input for weekly meetings
zlien holds their weekly meetings with their executives on every Tuesday. Prior to that, Scott uses Weekdone reports to get information about the progress of OKRs, both on the department level and team level. Alongside reports he asks them:
- What is your most important item this week?
- What do you need the most help with?
- What are you doing this week to advance the people you lead?
- How has the week been in terms of satisfaction?
On Tuesday he meets with the team and looks back on the last week – Plans, Progress and Problems. “I like the weekly reports as a way for getting the communication from my team and what they are doing” said Scott.
In addition, whenever Scott has 1:1 meetings with the executives, he pulls up the Weekdone reports and uses it to decide what they should talk about.
Weekdone benefits: Managers vs Teams
For Scott, a CEO, Weekdone provides a place where he gets insights into how OKRs are progressing. Also, it is easy to see which plans are not moving along, so he could address these issues. “Without Weekdone, it would be very hard for us to manage our objectives, so I consider it to be highly valuable for us” said Scott.
OKRs system itself requires the team to attach a certain metric to an objective and that process within itself is good for focusing on the right things. “Weekdone helps to train people to use objectives and key results in the right way” said Scott. Furthermore, Scott says that Weekdone puts the tasks and objectives in front of everyone to keep them accountable as well.
Scott, if there is a team leader out there who is not sure to use Weekdone or not, what would you tell them?
He would suggest using OKRs in general. It’s very good to align and focus your team on the main things you are trying to work on as a company. “Weekdone as a tool offers instant high-level visibility and information on what is going on with your company objectives” said Scott.
If you would like to see more Case Studies, click here.