Management: how we get stuff done

Starred managers always aspire to look after the team, help guide them, develop and train them to ensure everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and is fully supported.

Rather than rules, we've got guidelines to enable Managers to manage effectively. These guidelines concern regular features in all our calendars like 1:1s, OKRs and performance reviews.

Our 5 core values are built into the management structure, because after all, these values apply to everyone. You can read more about how management live these values in the section below on Leadership.

In the past performance reviews and discussions of salary were ad-hoc. This isn't the case any longer. There's specific times of year where both performance reviews and salary discussions take place. When it comes to living by our values, performance and salary are no exception. Overall assessment of Starred employees comprises a 70/30 ratio of performance and values.

In the chapter on our values you'll read about us replacing most rules and policies with simple, effective guidelines. This approach extends to how we manage our work at Starred. As the now-famous Ben Horowitz quote reads: “The first rule of organisation design is that all organisational designs are bad. The goal is to choose the least of all evils.” That being the case we all need to head in the same positive direction.

About OKRs

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is the framework we use on a quarterly basis to define and track objectives and their outcomes. We work with a company-wide set of OKRs, as well as departmental and individual OKRs. The important thing to remember about OKR-setting is that goals need to be measurable and verifiable. We gather for a company Townhall every quarter to look back on how well our teams did on their OKRs. It allows us to be data-focused.

Starred's people managers set OKRs with team members. Deliverables which count as wins for a department may often overlap with objectives in learning and development for a team member. It's common practice that we build in a proportion of the total OKRs for interdepartmental and cross-functional work.

About 1:1s

Every team member has regular 1:1 meetings with their manager. This may be weekly or bi-weekly.

In earlier chapters of Starred's history we often got something important wrong here: we confused 1:1s with regular, work-related catchups and status reports.

We now make the distinction. 1:1s are about the employee - about how they feel they're getting on, about their progression, about voicing concerns or whatever else might pop up. Keeping the 'job content' separate makes for much more rewarding meetings in either case.