THE OBEYA WAY: TURNING PERFORMANCE INTO PROGRESS WITH DJIMMY RADSTOK
If strategy tells you where you’re going, performance tells you whether you’re actually moving.
For Djimmy, Obeya isn’t about tracking numbers for the sake of it. It’s about making performance visible, meaningful, and actionable so teams don’t just report status, but solve problems together.
From measuring to meaning
One of the biggest challenges the leadership team set out to tackle was deceptively simple: Are our metrics actually helping us deliver on our strategy?
“Metrics shouldn’t exist in isolation,” Djimmy explains. “They need to impact strategy, otherwise you’re just measuring activity, not progress.”
Before Obeya, performance data existed, but it didn’t always tell a clear story. Different departments used different definitions. Data lived in different places. And too often, performance conversations drifted into explanations instead of solutions. The shift? Fewer metrics, sharper focus, and total transparency.
Seeing performance at a glance
In the Obeya room, performance is tracked visually and intentionally simple. Each lane has a limited set of metrics (six per lane), designed to be understood in the blink of an eye.
Green means: good enough.
Red means: pay attention.
“We don’t spend time celebrating the green,” Djimmy explains. “Green means it’s working. Red is where the conversation starts.”
And those metrics have to be crystal clear. No debates about definitions. No discussions about where the data came from. The point isn’t to argue the numbers, but to understand what’s going on and decide what needs to be done.
From status reporting to problem solving
That shift marks the biggest difference Djimmy sees compared to other ways of steering.
“Obeya moves you from status reporting to problem solving,” he offers. “And that’s a fundamental change.”
Instead of large meetings filled with updates, smaller groups now come together around data. The focus is no longer on how things feel, but on what the metrics are actually showing. Performance sessions are no longer about explaining why something is off-track, and instead about figuring out how to get back on track. Together.
One language, one version of the truth
One of the quiet superpowers of Obeya is alignment across departments. Metrics don’t belong to IT alone. HR, Finance, and other departments are part of the conversation, using the same data and the same language. Everyone looks at the same numbers, and for the first time, there are no differences between reports.
“We prepare the metrics every two weeks and get the data directly from the responsible departments,” Djimmy highlights. “That detailed view in Obeya didn’t exist before.”
This leads to fewer outdated numbers. No quarterly surprises. Just a shared understanding of reality and a shared responsibility to improve it. And every quarter, strategy, metrics, and milestones are revisited together.
Are we still measuring the right things?
Are these targets still challenging enough?
And most importantly: are they still helping us move forward?
Learning indicators: making space to experiment
Not every metric needs to be perfect from day one, and Djimmy is very intentional about that.
In Obeya, there are two types of indicators:
• Performance indicators with clear targets
• Learning indicators, shown as grey bars
Learning indicators exist to explore. There’s no target line yet, because the team is still figuring out whether the metric truly impacts strategy. After a quarter, it’s revisited: keep it, adapt it, or let it go. After all, it’s about learning and improving. Not everything needs to be perfect immediately.
Efficiency over perfection
One of Djimmy’s strongest beliefs? Don’t let tooling get in the way of progress. “Don’t spend too much time automating all your metrics,” he advises. “Obeya is about conversations, not dashboards.”
If data already exists, use it. Copy it. Keep it simple. The goal is efficiency, not elegance. His philosophy is refreshingly honest:
Start smart, small, and a little ugly.
It doesn’t need to be a fancy tool. It needs to be scalable and useful. Perfection can come later.
Where performance meets people
Perhaps the most powerful outcome of Djimmy’s approach is what happened around the metrics. People started reading the boards proactively. They began contributing without being asked. Managers, engineers, and leadership team members reached out across boundaries to help solve problems together. “That’s when you know it’s working,” Djimmy says. “When people don’t wait for permission and instead take ownership.”
This also applies to people metrics. Employee satisfaction is measured, analysed, and acted upon. When feedback revealed challenges, for instance those related to Essent’s large expat population and workation policies, teams didn’t debate the data. They used it instead. Actions were defined, and improvements followed. Slowly, steadily, the trend moved upward. “Bit by bit, you see progress,” Djimmy reflects. “And that’s incredibly motivating.”
Performance as a stage for empowerment
For Djimmy, Obeya performance is not about control. “It’s not a control room,” he says. “It’s a stage for empowerment.”
Through visual transparency, teams can lead themselves. Problems become shared challenges. Metrics become conversation starters, not judgement tools. That’s when performance stops being something that’s done to teams, and becomes something teams own.
One thing to try this week
Look at one metric your team tracks and ask: Does this help us make better decisions, or is it just nice to know?
If it doesn’t spark conversation or action, it might be time to let it go.
Next up: Toon on plan to value
Djimmy showed us how performance turns data into dialogue. Next, Toon will take us one step further in translating those insights into concrete plans that deliver real value.