How Komodo Strategically Plans: the Design-Centric Leadership Approach
The path to innovation is a delicate balance between top-down direction and bottom-up creativity. A singular approach of either top-down or bottom-up management can lead to missed opportunities and organizational disarray. According to Harvard Business Review, one of the approaches that makes a good balance of these two management styles is called design-centric leadership, a management style rooted in design thinking. This approach, which fosters people-centric solutions and experiences, holds the key to driving innovation while maintaining structure.
For organizations that run Research & Development projects, the adoption of design-centric leadership can be a game-changer. By harmonizing bottom-up creativity and collaboration with top-down guidance, it creates a fertile ground for innovation to flourish. In this article, we will introduce how Komodo strategically plans as an example of design-centric leadership that enables R&D to happen.
In Komodo, with written key results (KRs), the whole team can review the outcomes and decide on the next course of actions by following a designed voting process. Towards the end of each quarter, each “sherpa” (the individual who is directly responsible for a KR) presents evidence of whether the KRs are done. The entire team engages in a comprehensive review and voting process to determine if the KRs have been fulfilled. In cases where an objective isn't endorsed as complete, constructive discussions and votes follow to decide on the next course of action. This introspective review sets the stage for the forthcoming quarter's planning.
Team dynamics come into play as brainstorming sessions generate new KRs while revisiting the backlog. The team collectively identifies up to five KRs each, and by voting based on personal preferences and alignment with company objectives, a refined set of KRs emerges - a size that mirrors the team's capacity.
To empower ownership and collaboration, each team member holds two “sherpa tokens” for KRs of personal interest. In the case of conflicting interests, the team collaboratively decides the best-suited sherpa. Once sherpas are determined, they outline approaches for achieving the KRs and present them to the team. Team members then allocate their contribution, measured on a 100-point scale, to chosen KRs. To ensure the quality and commitment, we would review the overall contributions of each team member to make sure no one is working on too many KRs and everyone can contribute meaningfully to specific projects.
After the team for each KR is set, the sherpa will adjust the approaches that match with the team and then come up with an actual plan for the new quarter. As the new quarter starts, each sherpa presents the plan to the whole team and we adjust again based on the feedback.
By encouraging everyone to get involved in the strategy planning process, promoting ownership with the designation of sherpas, and motivating collaboration across the team on different projects via carefully designed processes, the design-centric leadership style allows Komodo to get new projects done and to achieve sustainable growth.
