At a glance
- Client: SITA, a global technology company behind much of modern air travel, from multilingual airport flight announcements to baggage handling
- Industry: Technology & Transportation
- Company size: 7,300 employees
- Challenge: A key product team that struggled to focus on the goals that would move it toward success: planning meetings ended in sprawling to-do lists, with little consensus on priorities and little visibility into progress
- Solution: Wave Nine's OKR training and consulting: a solid OKR foundation for the whole team, hands-on OKR-setting workshops, and a step-by-step handover over three quarters, with WorkBoard AI to manage the OKRs
- Results: Sharper focus through well-written OKRs, visibility the team hadn't had in over a decade, improved profits, and an OKR program SITA runs itself from the third quarter
The challenge: planning meetings that ended in to-do lists
SITA is a global technology company whose services you're probably familiar with, even if you don't realize it. From airport flight announcements in multiple languages to baggage handling solutions, SITA is transforming air travel through technology.
In 2023, Peter Drummond, SITA's Vice President of Product Management, began exploring methodologies to improve visibility, focus and alignment. He believed that clarity and focus would help his team further penetrate certain markets and prioritize its most important software development work.
A friend tipped Peter off to the OKR methodology, which led him to WorkBoard AI as a platform to manage OKRs. The WorkBoard AI team then recommended bringing in Wave Nine to support the initiative, with guidance on crafting OKRs and on building the internal systems to manage the program.
SITA's ultimate goal was to empower its own staff to take the reins and run the program internally after two quarters, with regular guidance and check-ins from Wave Nine.
Clarifying priorities and embracing a "healthy discomfort"
Large organizations often struggle to set unified, focused goals, and SITA was no different. Teams would meet to set clear objectives, but they left those meetings with sprawling to-do lists and little consensus on top priorities. They also lacked the visibility to track progress, find productivity bottlenecks and move toward their most important goals.
Peter and his team turned to Wave Nine to:
- Give the entire team a foundational understanding of OKRs
- Help the team align on priorities for the quarters ahead
- Improve collaboration between teams within SITA Airport Operations
- Offer guidance that would let SITA manage its efforts internally after two quarters, with weekly check-in calls from Wave Nine to provide guidance and keep things on track
"A carefully planned OKR initiative focuses the mind. It allows you to ask yourself whether the things you're doing are really helping you achieve your objectives."
Peter Drummond, VP of Product Management, SITA
Hands-on work was critical. The Wave Nine team worked directly with SITA's teams, so nobody had to write OKRs without guidance. OKR-setting workshops helped the teams craft outcome-oriented key results that aligned with the strategy and with each team's responsibilities, and narrowed their focus to the most important objectives.
"It's really hard to distill your OKRs down to three or four objectives for the quarter and fewer than six key results that feed into those goals. These conversations can get very uncomfortable, but it's a healthy discomfort."
Peter Drummond, VP of Product Management, SITA
"It really helped to have Wave Nine. The problem is that everyone moves into to-do-list mode, and they want to list everything they can think of. Wave Nine helped us concentrate on those things that really moved the needle."
Peter Drummond, VP of Product Management, SITA
What we did: from hands-on guidance to internal ownership
Wave Nine designed the rollout to move step by step from hands-on guidance to internal ownership, so SITA could run the program itself:
- Training: A theoretical foundation in the OKR methodology, followed by practical exercises and real OKR setting.
- Quarter 1, OKR-setting workshops: Wave Nine led the OKR-setting conversations with the teams, with real-life examples and best practices that helped each team articulate its most important goals.
- Quarter 2, guided handover: Wave Nine stepped back and let SITA's staff guide the OKR process under Wave Nine's supervision.
- Quarter 3, internal ownership: SITA had largely mastered its OKR program, and could lean on Wave Nine wherever needed.
- Platform: WorkBoard AI to manage the OKRs, with native integrations for Salesforce and Azure DevOps.
The results: visibility, focus and increased profits
After three quarters, SITA's OKR program gave the team a clear direction, with strong visibility to identify progress, pinpoint roadblocks to success and keep everything moving in the right direction.
Technology complemented the new management approach. WorkBoard AI's native integrations for Salesforce and Azure DevOps gave everyone a real-time view of progress against plan. Before, that information was only easily available by consulting the subject matter experts in the Business Development and Software Engineering departments.
"We haven't had this kind of visibility in over 10 years."
Kenneth Svendsen, Senior Business Consultant, SITA
Priorities naturally shift over time, and OKRs gave Peter's team a framework to discuss and weigh competing goals. With its objectives largely met in Q3, SITA headed into the fourth quarter with a strategic roadmap and a new product team in place. The team also moved forward with a clear understanding of its product development goals and an inspiring vision for the future.
Peter believes that the practical, actionable OKR skills and understanding Wave Nine provided, together with its guidance on crafting and managing OKRs, helped SITA succeed.
"Our Wave Nine consultant was excellent. He gave us really good training around OKRs, and he helped us focus our minds so we could build high-quality OKR."
Peter Drummond, VP of Product Management, SITA
The results at a glance:
- Visibility not seen in over 10 years: a clear direction, with progress and roadblocks in plain view.
- Improved profits after three quarters of OKRs.
- Real-time progress against plan: with the Salesforce and Azure DevOps integrations in WorkBoard AI, everyone sees progress directly, without having to ask the experts in Business Development and Software Engineering.
- Sharper focus: well-written OKRs, with a target of three or four objectives and fewer than six key results per quarter.
- A self-run program by quarter three: SITA largely mastered OKRs, with its objectives largely met in Q3.
- Ready for what's next: a strategic roadmap and a new product team going into the fourth quarter.
Key takeaways from SITA's OKR initiative
Every Wave Nine case study offers insights into launching and managing a successful OKR program. Here are the key takeaways Peter shared from SITA's initiative:
- Explain OKRs extensively upfront: Wave Nine's training gave a theoretical foundation for the OKR methodology, followed by practical exercises and OKR setting. Peter believes that set the stage for strong adoption.
- Roll out the program in person: Whenever possible, Peter recommends rolling out an OKR program through a series of live or hybrid meetings, so nobody gets distracted.
- Regular check-ins: The SITA team recommends holding OKR calibration meetings at the same time every week. That keeps attendance high and reinforces the critical results, the rituals and the OKR habits of updating, analyzing and discussing the next steps for each OKR.
What's next for SITA
SITA plans to use OKRs together with the Balanced Scorecard methodology. Airport Operations will be able to use both systems through WorkBoard AI, and by combining them, Peter's team will keep innovating. That supports the creation of cutting-edge technology that makes airports more profitable and air travel easier for passengers around the world.
