Printful needed a clear structure and focus across its teams after an acquisition. Our custom OKR workshop helped employees connect faster, define shared goals, and implement them right away.
Solution
Custom Workshop
Client
Printful
Printful is an on-demand print and fulfillment company that turns ideas into products and brands. From personalized t-shirts to full e-commerce businesses, Printful handles production and shipping the moment an order is placed. With a strong focus on sustainability and innovation, the company’s ambition is to make on-demand production the new standard.
As a fast-growing e-commerce player, Printful had already introduced OKRs in its European branches. These teams wanted to take the next step and use OKRs more effectively to strengthen consistency and sharpen focus across the organization.
A series of international acquisitions introduced a new challenge: integrating teams and management layers with no prior experience with OKRs. These teams needed to familiarize themselves with the methodology and align their goals with Printful’s existing strategy and processes. Without a common framework, the risk was clear: teams would move in different directions, alignment would fade, and the full potential of OKRs would go untapped.
Custom OKR workshop in practice
Together with Printful’s strategic project lead, we assembled a diverse group of middle and senior managers. The mix of experienced and less experienced participants—drawn from both established teams and newly acquired units—ensured a broad perspective.
Across four online sessions, supported by Miro, we introduced the principles of OKRs while refining and strengthening existing ones. This hands-on approach helped participants connect theory directly to their day-to-day context.
The workshops focused on creating one common framework for alignment, progress tracking, and evaluation. Writing OKRs together from different perspectives gave teams a greater understanding of each other’s context and improved the overall quality of the goals.
Active participation from senior management gave the process both direction and sponsorship. Their role was crucial in linking local initiatives to Printful’s overarching strategy and in accelerating the integration of new teams into the company culture.
The custom OKR workshop helped new international teams integrate more smoothly and quickly. By working with OKRs in real situations, employees were able to connect faster to Printful’s existing structure.
Participants learned to translate strategic objectives into team-level OKRs more effectively. This strengthened the cascading process and increased consistency across different layers of the organization.
The sessions introduced a regular cadence of evaluating and adjusting OKRs. This rhythm is essential for keeping direction in an organization that is constantly evolving.
“I thought the session was great! I am very new to OKRs, and I felt that it gave me a solid foundation and a lot to think about. I thought the virtual participation was really cool.”
“I thought the session went really well and was very informative. I think I am way more prepared to write my OKRs now. I really liked the way they used the Miro board to present – I think it made the session very interactive even though we were all doing it remotely.”
The custom workshop showed that OKRs are more than just a framework for setting goals. They are a powerful tool to connect teams and create shared ownership. The mix of existing experience and fresh perspectives gave Printful stronger, better-supported OKRs.
The challenge ahead is to anchor this way of working. By keeping a steady rhythm of evaluation and adjustment, Printful can continue to benefit from OKRs: more focus, faster integration of new teams, and a stronger link between strategy and execution.
The custom OKR workshop helped Printful strengthen existing experience, accelerate the integration of new teams, and create a shared approach to setting goals.
