How This OKR Coach Guides Strategy

Madeleine Silva, a director and coach at Orange Team.

Madeleine Silva

OKR Coach,

Orange Team

Madeleine is coaching companies across Latin America on their strategy.

IDEO U COURSE COMPLETED: Designing Strategy

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“I took Designing Strategy because I'm an OKR coach. During the course, I built my own strategy for my company.”

Could you tell us about yourself?

I'm an OKR coach who helps companies set objectives and key results. I've been working with companies all over Latin America the last three years.

Every business has many challenges, like increasing revenue and sales. Companies need to know their strategy. The important thing is how we can ask the right questions to figure out the best strategy for the business.

Why did you decide to take Designing Strategy?

I was looking for something different. I'd heard about IDEO, and when I saw the course I fell in love. I knew that it was for me. I liked that we could do everything online and also get coaching sessions.

I took Designing Strategy because I'm an OKR coach and need many tools to help companies. I've practiced and integrated the tools from the course with my clients, and that has helped me a lot. For me, everything we worked on in Designing Strategy was really useful.

“Companies need to know their strategy. The important thing is how we can ask the right questions.”
Madeleine Silva

What impact did the course have on your career?

During the course, I built my own strategy for my company. Designing Strategy was a process, with many lessons. Every week, we had to apply what we learned to a project—and I chose my company.

Two people putting papers on a whiteboard. Madeleine helps other companies figure out their strategy.

I also received feedback from the class and teachers. Your project gets better and better over five weeks, and at the end of the course you launch your strategy. When I finished my final project, I was like, “Oh my goodness, I did that?”

What’s one thing you learned from Designing Strategy?

There was one lesson about experimentation and validation of ideas. For example, if you think that a potential client might be a good one, do a small project or interview to see if they're really the kind of customer that you're looking for.

Doing these kinds of small experiments with strategy is good, because you're not wasting your money or time. You're just doing a little to confirm that it's a good option for you or your company. That lesson was good for me.

“At the end of the course, you launch your strategy. When I finished my final project, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I did that?’”
Madeleine Silva

What was your favorite part of the course?

Every week, we received coaching sessions with teachers and alumni. For me, it was wonderful because I could ask questions. One coach had a lot of experience with strategy, so that one-hour session every week was invaluable for me. It was really awesome to have this kind of space.

What advice would you give other learners?

I have one piece of advice to people who speak Spanish. Sometimes we're afraid to take English classes. Don't be nervous. Just take the challenge!

I didn't feel confident about my English, but everyone was so nice. They were open to hearing me, understanding me, and sharing their ideas with me. When we got together as a class every week, it was amazing to see how multicultural the students were, and how we could share our points of view.

A laptop with many people in a Zoom meeting. Madeleine met people from all over the world through the course.

So I encourage everyone who speaks another language besides English to take these kinds of courses. It's a really nice experience, and I think that the course is designed in a way that we can understand it. If we study with other people from all over the world, we're going to be more global.

“I encourage everyone who speaks another language besides English to take these courses. The course is designed in a way that we can understand it.”
Madeleine Silva

What’s next for you?

I'm preparing my English skills to have English-speaking clients. I want to work with clients all over the world.

IDEO U has other interesting courses on design thinking and innovation that might help me with my journey to be a better coach. We need to learn new things every day, because everything changes. We should learn new methodologies and upgrade our skills throughout our lives.

If you’d like to read more interviews from the IDEO U community, check out all of our learner stories.

Learn how to create a successful strategy in our online course Designing Strategy, the first course in our two-course certificate Human-Centered Strategy. Enroll today and learn how to make strategy accessible and actionable.