Geoff Charles: commitment

Transcript context

…I don't even know what separates an OKR from not an OKR. I feel like OKRs are just a goal with some high-level statements of things we're trying to accomplish. I don't even understand when people say they use OKRs or don't, what that even means anymore. There's a recurring point on this podcast and other posts of just people are weary of just being obsessed with, "Here's the metric that we're going to hit and that's all that matters." And there's a fear they lose sight of the bigger picture, what they're trying to accomplish. But I think in the end, it's just like, "Here's what we're trying to do. Here's some goals, we're going to hit it," because I don't know care, I don't know. I think that's right. I think that's right. And at the end of the day, again, the contract is your product roadmap and that's the contract you have, the sales organization. Marketing can take that product roadmap and create market moments. And ultimately, if your product roadmap doesn't actually hit the goals of the company, then I'm accountable because I've created a system by which I've aligned with each team on why the roadmap is going to hit the goals. And so you essentially need to point back to the leader in that regard. But I can't ask every team to try to manipulate OKRs to fit their roadmaps. That's just completely exhausting. We've aligned on what we need to do, let's get it done. Something that comes across pretty clearly in the way you think and the way Ramp operates is this idea of thinking from first principles. And it's a cliche term, feels like everyone's always trying to talk about how they're thinking from first principles and it's important to their culture to think from first principles, but it feels like you guys actually do it. And so I am curious just where that emerged for you or for Ramp. And is there an example of something that emerged within Ramp, a new product or an idea, that was very clearly from first principles?…

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