Systems Not Goals
Build a default-on repeatable system instead of chasing a one-off target.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Rather than obsessing over a goal, install a recurring system that produces the outcome as a byproduct. Goals turn on and off quarter to quarter, but a default-on ritual compounds. Shackleton frames the product manager's core job as turning ambiguity into clarity, and systems are how you do that reliably rather than sporadically.
Origin
Lane Shackleton credits the Jerry Seinfeld documentary Comedian: after throwing away 15 years of material, Seinfeld rebuilt an hour of stand-up not by fixating on the goal but by running a daily system (write every morning, perform every night). Shackleton adapted this to product teams at Coda.
Core principles
- 01Goals with good intentions don't work because they switch on and off
- 02A system runs by default whether or not a goal is set
- 03Good instincts (e.g. customer intuition) are the residue of a repeated system, not a single push
- 04The value of a system is hard to see until you notice one team has far better instincts than another
How to run it
- 1
Name the capability you actually want
Identify the underlying instinct or outcome you're chasing (e.g. strong customer intuition), not just the quarterly number that proxies for it.
Pro tip Ask which capability, if it compounded, would make the goal trivial.
Watch out Do not confuse hitting an OKR once with having built the capability.
- 2
Convert it into a default-on cadence
Design a recurring ritual that fires regardless of motivation — a standing weekly customer session, a fixed writing block — and put it on the calendar so it happens by default.
Pro tip Coda blocked Fridays for an incoming customer visit so a prototype always had to exist.
Watch out If skipping it requires no effort, it will erode; make the default state 'it happens'.
- 3
Rinse and repeat until instinct emerges
Run the system hundreds of times. The compounding output (material, prototypes, customer insight) is what builds the durable advantage.
Pro tip Sometimes you'll scramble hours before the ritual — that pressure is the system working.
Watch out Don't judge the system by any single output; judge it by the instincts it produces over months.
In the wild
In Coda's early days a customer or potential customer was booked on the calendar every Friday, so the team always had to have something to show. Sometimes they scrambled three hours before to get a prototype ready.
→ The team developed strong customer instincts not as a stated goal but as a byproduct of the default-on system.
Common mistakes
Setting a 'talk to 10 customers' OKR
Teams set a one-quarter goal of talking to customers, may or may not hit it, then drop it next quarter — so learning goes up and down instead of compounding, and product instincts never form.
Measuring the goal instead of the cadence
Tracking whether the target was hit tells you nothing about whether the underlying capability is building; only the recurrence of the system does.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product leaders and founders who want durable customer intuition or output quality rather than sporadic quarterly pushes
Not ideal for
Genuinely one-off initiatives with a hard deadline and no repeat value
From the transcript
“instead of being obsessed with a goal you know be obsessed with the system that gets you there”
“the way that we developed good customer instincts uh was not the goal it was really just the sort of system behind it”
From the episode
What sets great teams apart
Lane Shackleton (CPO of Coda)