The Real Question in Real Estate Development: Are We on Track, or in the Right Direction?

In real estate development, we measure everything: timelines, budgets, safety, sales velocity. Yet some of the most carefully tracked projects still stumble. Why? Because what we measure isn’t always what actually matters.

That’s the whole point of John Doerr’s book "Measure What Matters". The book became essential reading not because it adds another set of metrics, but because it reframes how leaders think about progress. KPIs tell us if we are delivering against plan. OKRs ask if the plan itself is moving us in the right direction.

And in real estate development, where projects stretch across years, involve dozens of stakeholders, and depend on precision as much as vision that difference matter. It is the line between keeping control and achieving progress.

Over the last two months (the reason for my radio silence on social media), I’ve been responsible for coordinating a complex tender for a JV with a major PIF-backed entity in Riyadh. It involved over 10 companies across multiple disciplines, and the only way I stayed focused was by applying OKR thinking. Not just for the client submission, but for how the teams worked together and keeping alignment with real objectives.

Why KPIs Are Not Enough

KPIs are vital, but they belong to a certain mindset: control, compliance, and delivery discipline. In any multi-stakeholder project, whether it’s a single asset, a multi-package masterplan, or a portfolio - KPIs provide the guardrails.

They tell us if the basics are intact:

• Are milestones being met on schedule?

• Are budgets and risks within tolerance?

• Are outputs consistent and accurate?

This is the language of portfolio management, as Project Management Institute PMI KSA Chapter معهد إدارة المشاريع فرع المملكة العربية السعودية defines it: coherence across projects, clarity of baselines, visibility for decision-makers.

But here’s the limit. KPIs only answer: Are we on track? They don’t answer: Are we moving toward the right impact? And in a Vision 2030 context, where ambition is measured in decades and billions, impact is the only thing that counts.

The Power of OKRs

OKRs, by contrast, force the bigger question: Are we moving in the right direction?

For this tender, OKRs created alignment on three levels:

1. Growing Company Operations

• Objective: Build Coldwell Banker Saudi Arabia’s capacity to deliver complex advisory mandates.

• Key Results: Adjust internal systems, align Advisory–Delivery–Deals, streamline communication between Riyadh and international partners.

• Example: GenBlue2025 in Las Vegas wasn’t just a brand showcase, it was a real OKR checkpoint to prove our Saudi operations are integrated into a global platform.

2. Structuring Clear Teamwork

• Objective: Bring coherence across 10 specialist teams.

• Key Results: Turn complex inputs into a single structure; align deep-domain experts into one portfolio view; balance detail with the overall investment story.

• Example: In the tender preparation, feasibility, risk, and ESG were handled by different experts with different lenses. OKRs let us pull their work into one narrative, so instead of separate reports, we delivered a unified, investor-ready submission.

3. Delivering Client Work

• Objective: Submit a proposal that inspires confidence.

• Key Results: Communicate a complex delivery program clearly, embed sustainability, and deliver a financial model that is ambitious but feasible.

• Example: By the later stages of the tender, we weren’t just submitting technical answers, we were reframing the project around community vibrancy, long-term feasibility, and clear commercial targets.

The Project Within Perspective

My Project Within framework is built on one truth: successful projects start inside. Teams, leaders, stakeholders, when they are aligned, the outside holds. When they are fragmented, it collapses.

Over time, I’ve developed an internal narrative that acts like my compass. It helps me navigate complexity without losing direction or purpose. In the last two months, OKRs gave us that compass:

• Internal growth: expanding Coldwell Banker Saudi Arabia’s advisory function.

• Cross-company collaboration: over 10 companies moving as one.

• Client delivery: meeting and exceeding PIF-backed entity expectations, and most importantly our client's objectives.

That’s what I mean by Project Within. Whether it’s a land acquisition, a masterplan, or structuring a department, success comes from connecting purpose with execution.

Practical Takeaway for Real Estate Leaders

If you’re in real estate development, here’s the practice I recommend:

• Use KPIs to track delivery: timelines, budgets, compliance.

• Use OKRs to drive evolution: feasibility excellence, investor confidence, integrated delivery across advisory and transactions.

• At every stage of a project, ask both.

When both are integrated, projects don’t just get delivered. They build confidence, attract capital, and create long-term value.

Final Thought

I strongly recommend reading Measure What Matters. The book’s core message, and my own experience, prove the same thing: projects rarely fail from lack of effort, they fail from lack of alignment.

And in Saudi Arabia’s real estate sector, the stakes are far too high for that. Investors, regulators, and communities expect more than technical compliance; they expect strategic coherence.

That’s why at Coldwell Banker Saudi Arabia we structure our Development Advisory department around three layers: Advisory, Delivery, and Deals, to ensure we are always measuring what matters, from vision to execution.

Because in the end, what we achieve is always a mirror of how well we are aligned within.