Using OKRs and KPIs to drive newsletter growth
A practical example of OKRs and KPIs
Today I wrote about what I have to offer you over on the about page; if you haven’t read that yet, please check it out and let me introduce myself!
Now that I’m committed to writing here on Substack, it’s time to set a goal with measurable results for myself. I’ll use the goal setting methodology OKR for that (Objective, Key Result). Here is what I came up with:
Objective: Spread/scale my wisdom of engineering, leadership and human experience.
Key Result: A newsletter brand is created on Substack.
Key Result: A newsletter is published once a week.
Key Result: Newsletter subscriptions have reached 10,000 by end of Q2 2024.
To keep myself on track, I’ll use a KPI (Key Progress Indicator) to monitor the progress of our OKR; my KPI is simply a metric that I can monitor in near-realtime. At a minimum, I’ll review my progress with the KPI on a weekly basis and make any adjustments to my work to keep the OKR on track.
Since I want to spread my wisdom by achieving 10,000 subscribers (inherently scaling), it’s logical that I would use Substack’s subscriber count as my KPI. Let’s take a look… Here is my baseline KPI: 2 subscribers as of Jan 8, 2024:
A bit of history on this chart: The first subscriber is me, when I was exploring Substack last year, and the 2nd is a peer that has recently been coaching and motivating me to write.
OH… and-look-at-that… I’ve procrastinated for 14 months since I first engaged with Substack 🫠. Alright, it was’t complete procrastination, I did explore what a newsletter might look like on LinkedIn for a while with for the Love of Software.
Well, I’ve got wisdom to spread, writing to do, and an OKR to achieve. Wish me luck! Better yet, send a few people my way that you think might be interested in what I have to say about engineering, leadership and the human experience.