How we've OKR'd our way into 2025

It’s the end of March already, and our first quarter of 2025 has been a whirlwind for us at Team Reclaro (or “The Reclarios” as we call ourselves - we like a bit of cheese here at HQ 😁) and this is why.

2024 was a pivotal year of change for us with significant developments in virtually every aspect of our business; everything from the development of our Reclaro OKR software with loads of new product features, to key staffing changes and website improvements - I can honestly say we have worked on everything! We have streamlined some of our working practices to allow us to be more effective and efficient with our time and I have to say we are being more productive overall. There have been challenges and setbacks along the way and as a team we have worked together to find solutions, no suggestion goes unheard! One of our early 2024 Team highlights was winning ‘New Business of the Year’ in the Northern Echo BusinessiQ awards (which we were genuinely flabbergasted about!) and I think that helped cement our belief that as a team what we were doing was valuable, and boosted our motivation to reach out and help even more businesses; we actually doubled our turnover from 2023.

We’ve continued with things that work for us, and sometimes in a small team these are things that can easily fall by the wayside but by making them a habit, you will see the benefits. We have a team meeting every Monday and Friday mornings, and we have a micro training session every Friday. These are short, sharp and to the point, and vital for a part-hybrid team to check in and support each other. Our monthly in person Team Days are scheduled when we can all get together, but in this first quarter of 2025 we’ve shaken them up a bit and changed the format; the itinerary is less formal, we interact more and bounce ideas and feedback off each other. It’s a freer environment and we’re open to any ideas and suggestions, some might work, some might not but the point is that with our team confidence growing and seeing the results we’re having we’re not afraid to suggest or try something that we might previously have considered too ‘out there’. Q1 of 2025 has pushed us all out of our comfort zone; we’ve taken on tasks and learned new skills that were necessary due in part to staff changes and budget limitations, but this has strengthened our team and shown us that actually it’s not a one size fits all and there are other ways to achieve your Vision.

At the end of every year, our team completes our own individual year end self analysis to reflect on (among other things) what were our highlights and what did we learn from them, what habits have we created and how effective have we been. Based on everything we had learned, did, created, won, (lost) throughout the past 12 months, we went into 2025 with a clear strategic vision of what we wanted our year to look like at the end of it, and by setting ambitious yet actionable objectives and key results using our own Reclaro OKR software framework we hit the ground running on the 1st January, and I can honestly say that we were all positive, motivated and excited for our first quarter. Our team has a sense of purpose with shared values and we take ownership of our work, there’s a sense of pride in what we do and we’re seeing the results in improved productivity and growth; we’ve achieved the same turnover in Q1 of 2025 that we did in the whole of 2023, and we’re looking to double our turnover on 2024, now that’s growth!

One of our most valuable takeaways in 2024 was a deeper understanding of our customers and their evolving needs, and this has really helped us to shape what we offer and how we deliver it so we can keep doing what we do best - turning strategy into action to boost team accountability, transparency and productivity through our simple intuitive OKR software. New customers came on board giving us valuable insight into the challenges companies face when trying to implement successful strategy execution within their businesses. We have a massively diverse customer base with companies from all sectors but the challenges and core issues they face are the same, strategy execution and alignment within their teams with visibility and accountability while working towards their company Vision. It’s truly rewarding to see customers clarifying their Vision, setting their OKR’s, successfully aligning their teams and nailing their objectives through using our proven OKR software framework; and with regular engagement and ongoing support they openly share their wins with us, providing valuable feedback that allows us to continually refine our product for the benefit of everyone.

It’s been a very busy Q1, and we’re all buzzing heading into Q2 with some exciting events in the pipeline, new customers ready to come onboard and a general excitement for the year ahead!