Organizations often turn to OKRs expecting a silver bullet for strategy execution. But what happens when OKRs are introduced during a perfect storm of post-merger integration, hypergrowth, and shifting priorities? SAP Signavio‘s story is not a textbook success story. It’s a learning journey about what it really takes to bring strategy to life, and why OKRs alone can’t do the heavy lifting.
This case study is based on the experiences shared by Robert Brockmann and Vivien Rose, who are responsible for running strategy at SAP Signavio, from formulation to execution. They presented their journey at the OKR Forum 2026.
As Robert frames it: “OKRs don’t necessarily fail because they’re wrong. They fail because they are asked to do a job they were never meant to do alone.”
The Perfect Storm: Speed, Complexity, and Uncertainty
In 2021, SAP acquired Signavio, a Berlin-based startup with around 400 employees and several product lines. The integrating unit on the SAP side had around 100 employees and was pre-revenue.
What followed was hypergrowth on more than one dimension: the organization scaled from around 100 to over 1,200 employees, exceeded bookings and revenue targets, and did all of this while integrating into a very large corporate environment.
As Vivien describes: “We faced a complex post-merger integration, significant organizational hypergrowth, aggressive growth targets, and a diverse and growing number of product lines converting from stand-alone products into a suite approach. We had fragmented tech stacks and conflicting priorities across these product lines, leading to delivery delays and prioritization conflicts.”
The team needed absolute clarity on outcomes to survive the scaling while bringing two company cultures together. That’s why SAP Signavio started with OKRs as a framework in 2021.
The First Chapter: OKRs Show Promise, Then Hit a Wall
Initially, things looked promising. A central team of around three coaches facilitated OKR workshops for approximately 40 teams. There was energy, structure, and optimism. But the model didn’t scale. Three people for more than 40 teams in a growing organization wasn’t sustainable, so the team moved to a decentralized approach with OKR champions.
By 2022, a deeper issue surfaced. OKRs were not part of ceremonies or daily conversations. They were seen as something on top, an extra layer rather than a core way of working.
Vivien explains: “With the strategy not yet fully understood across all levels of the organization and operating models not yet aligned, OKRs drifted towards what we called theoretical perfection. We had people in our organization being very strict with the methodology, while the organization itself was still thinking in outputs.”
This was the point where leaders and the broader organization started to reject OKRs. And the point where the team recognized that OKRs are not a standalone operating model.
The Pivot: From OKRs to Game Plans
In 2022, SAP Signavio made a deliberate pivot. With a growth mindset of always being in beta, they opted for minimum viable structures.
They didn’t throw OKRs away. Instead, they asked a different question: “What do teams actually need to execute strategy?”
The answer was context and adjusted structures. They introduced Game Plans, an execution framework that wraps OKRs with essential context:
- Vision and mission
- Value drivers and principles
- Interlocks and dependencies
- Commitments
- Anti-focus areas: things they will not do
These Game Plans were built by cross-functional “power couples” from engineering and product, per product line, working together with the go-to-market organization. Alongside this, the team introduced an annual strategy cycle connecting a three-year vision back to the current state in a one-year forward planning focus.
From Transparency to Accountability
With Game Plans running, silos between product, engineering, and go-to-market broke down, forcing sometimes uncomfortable but necessary conversations on strategic outcomes. Yet it wasn’t instant magic. The transparency highlighted exactly where the organization needed to grow.
As Robert notes: “We realized many had outgrown their roles during the hypergrowth. Reporting lines quadrupled, and we had many first-time managers.”
A mismatch between product and engineering roles had emerged. Accountability no longer matched, and design was missing from the picture. SAP Signavio introduced product areas consisting of product, design, and engineering, with mirrored accountability at both area and sub-area levels.
The team also changed the rhythm. Monthly leadership check-ins, Game Plans as the cornerstone of quarterly business reviews, and clear guidance on upcoming quarters. As Robert puts it: “Decisions were no longer a result of escalation, but of focused, timely discussion.”
With aligned clarity and cascaded context, teams could make decisions where they were closest to the work and surface issues transparently without escalation.
The Formula That Works
After years of iteration, SAP Signavio landed on a formula that combines three elements:
- Game Plans with OKRs as a key outcome of the annual strategy cycle, providing the strategic context teams need.
- An operating model where Game Plans are a consistent element and units adapt the construct to their own reality. As Vivien shares: “They take what we design centrally, then make it their own and make it work for them, all with the same outcomes in mind.”
- Organizational maturity, with people stepping up in their roles and the right capabilities in place.
The results are tangible. The organization shifted to monthly releases, reduced delivery cycle times, and stopped relying on rigid annual roadmaps, focusing instead on problems to solve rather than feature lists.
As Vivien highlights: “Strategy understanding increased in our organization. The strategy adherence improved, and also the buy-in became more real and not only forced.”
Key Lessons from SAP Signavio’s Journey
- OKRs work best with the right context. As Vivien concludes: “We do believe that OKRs work best if they are integrated with the right context, strategic clarity, and alignment over over-emphasis of the framework itself.”
- Organizational maturity matters more than process perfection. A strategy execution system only works if it’s built on domain expertise, candid communication, trust, and the courage to prioritize reality over theory. Prioritize understanding the business you operate in over perfecting the framework.
- Establish shared accountability early. Looking back, Robert says that establishing accountability across the three key functions of product management, design, and engineering earlier would have significantly reduced friction.
- Be patient. As Vivien reflects: “Sometimes things just take time. And sometimes also the organization is not yet ready, so we needed all of these pivots.”
SAP Signavio’s story is a reminder that OKRs are not a standalone solution. They are one piece of a larger puzzle. The real work is building the context, the structures, and the organizational maturity that allow teams to turn strategy into action, every day.