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Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success
In the old days, when we made physical products, setting project goals wasn’t that hard. But in today’s service- and software-driven world, “done” is less obvious. When is Amazon done? When is Google done? Or Facebook? In reality, services powered by digital systems are never done. So then how do we give teams a goal that they can work on?Mostly, we simply ask teams to build features—but features are the wrong way to go. We often build features that create no value. Instead, we need to give teams an outcome to achieve. Using outcomes creates focus and alignment. It eliminates needless work. And it puts the customer at the center of everything you do.Setting goals as outcomes sounds simple, but it can be hard to do in practice. This book is a practical guide to using outcomes to guide the work of your team. "Josh’s crisp volume brims with insight about how to fly at just the right level - the level of outcomes. If you’ve ever wondered how M your MVP should be, or how to get more R in your OKRs, this book will help." - Nick Rockwell, CTO, NY Times
86 pages, Paperback
First published April 8, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
September 24, 2019
Outstanding book, so much so that before I was even finished with the book, I recommended it to a few of my friends and colleagues.
There's a good chance that this short book will cause a paradigm shift for you, it certainly did for me. This book may be small, but its impact is huge, give it a good read.
There's a good chance that this short book will cause a paradigm shift for you, it certainly did for me. This book may be small, but its impact is huge, give it a good read.
March 30, 2022
While reading the book, I wondered why it is so hard to design outcomes? My background as a software developer has led me to a position of building things (outputs) prioritized in a list of features. More recently, as a business person, I've pursued an increase in revenue, optimization of retention rate, cost reduction, reduction in attrition, and all different flavors of impact.
The book showed me that there is a link between impact and outputs.
Next, I quote the main insights generated by reading Josh's book:
- An outcome is a change in human behavior that drives business results. Outcomes are the changes in customer, user, employee behavior that lead to good things for your company, your organization, or whoever is the focus of your work.
- We can finish and deliver features, and they can "work perfectly" but still not deliver any value.
- Impact-level targets are too complex to be beneficial to our teams. Instead, we need to ask our teams to work on outcomes—the smaller, more manageable targets that, taken together, will create the impact we want.
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous value delivery.
- When you combine outcome-based targets with a process that's based on running experiments, you start to unlock the power of agile approaches.
- Think of MVP as the smallest thing you can do or the minor thing you can do to learn if your hypothesis is correct.
- You can manage a team by telling them what to make: managing outputs. It's a problem because features don't consistently deliver value.
- Because outcomes are things people do, they're both observable and measurable.
- An outcome is a human behavior that drives business results, and to figure them out, we need to understand what our customers are doing that drives the results that we care about.
- A primary hypothesis has two parts: what we believe and the evidence we seek to know if we're right or wrong.
- How can we get people to do more of those behaviors? (these are the features, policy changes, promotions, etc., that we'll do to try to create the outcomes.)
- What are our customers trying to do? How do they do that today? How can we make it easier for them to do that?
- Leaders think in high-level terms—appropriate to their level in the organization. Executors think in much more detailed terms, reflecting their POV from where they sit in the organization. In other words, leaders think about impacts, and executors are responsible for outputs and outcomes.
- No digital system is ever really complete, and conversely, even very small slices of a new digital system can start generating value before the rest of the system is ready.
- Use outcomes to track progress. Leading indicators tell you that you're going to hit or miss your target. Lagging indicators show your target. Build an understanding of what behaviors lead to achieving the targets you seek.
- It often makes more sense to plan around work themes, problems to solve, or outcomes to deliver.
- So a customer journey map lets you see the behaviors in the system, which means that you can start to think about which behaviors you want to encourage, which behaviors you want to eliminate, and which ones might be missing.
- In large organizations, coordination will always be hard—there's no perfect organization, of course, you're always optimizing for one factor over another—but so often, our organizations are set up around product or channel vs behavior or customer journey. And when we do that, we're implicitly de-prioritizing outcomes and prioritizing outputs.
- Questions to define a strategy: what were the goals for the business in that market? What conditions and challenges did the business face? What policies and actions would they take in response?
- Changing behavior inside an organization is a complex problem and not one that is easily solved by planning on paper. Instead, it benefits from an action-oriented approach. You try something, see if it works, and if it does, you invest in the process. This experimental approach to behavior change creates a deeply agile way to approach transformation inside organizations.
- What are the new behaviors you want to create in the organization? What will people be doing differently when your change program is successful?
The book showed me that there is a link between impact and outputs.
Next, I quote the main insights generated by reading Josh's book:
- An outcome is a change in human behavior that drives business results. Outcomes are the changes in customer, user, employee behavior that lead to good things for your company, your organization, or whoever is the focus of your work.
- We can finish and deliver features, and they can "work perfectly" but still not deliver any value.
- Impact-level targets are too complex to be beneficial to our teams. Instead, we need to ask our teams to work on outcomes—the smaller, more manageable targets that, taken together, will create the impact we want.
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous value delivery.
- When you combine outcome-based targets with a process that's based on running experiments, you start to unlock the power of agile approaches.
- Think of MVP as the smallest thing you can do or the minor thing you can do to learn if your hypothesis is correct.
- You can manage a team by telling them what to make: managing outputs. It's a problem because features don't consistently deliver value.
- Because outcomes are things people do, they're both observable and measurable.
- An outcome is a human behavior that drives business results, and to figure them out, we need to understand what our customers are doing that drives the results that we care about.
- A primary hypothesis has two parts: what we believe and the evidence we seek to know if we're right or wrong.
- How can we get people to do more of those behaviors? (these are the features, policy changes, promotions, etc., that we'll do to try to create the outcomes.)
- What are our customers trying to do? How do they do that today? How can we make it easier for them to do that?
- Leaders think in high-level terms—appropriate to their level in the organization. Executors think in much more detailed terms, reflecting their POV from where they sit in the organization. In other words, leaders think about impacts, and executors are responsible for outputs and outcomes.
- No digital system is ever really complete, and conversely, even very small slices of a new digital system can start generating value before the rest of the system is ready.
- Use outcomes to track progress. Leading indicators tell you that you're going to hit or miss your target. Lagging indicators show your target. Build an understanding of what behaviors lead to achieving the targets you seek.
- It often makes more sense to plan around work themes, problems to solve, or outcomes to deliver.
- So a customer journey map lets you see the behaviors in the system, which means that you can start to think about which behaviors you want to encourage, which behaviors you want to eliminate, and which ones might be missing.
- In large organizations, coordination will always be hard—there's no perfect organization, of course, you're always optimizing for one factor over another—but so often, our organizations are set up around product or channel vs behavior or customer journey. And when we do that, we're implicitly de-prioritizing outcomes and prioritizing outputs.
- Questions to define a strategy: what were the goals for the business in that market? What conditions and challenges did the business face? What policies and actions would they take in response?
- Changing behavior inside an organization is a complex problem and not one that is easily solved by planning on paper. Instead, it benefits from an action-oriented approach. You try something, see if it works, and if it does, you invest in the process. This experimental approach to behavior change creates a deeply agile way to approach transformation inside organizations.
- What are the new behaviors you want to create in the organization? What will people be doing differently when your change program is successful?
July 26, 2019
WOW! Changed my life for sure
A must read for anyone who feels under-achieved (probably in any contexts).
Outcomes-based Thinking? That's my new belief.
A must read for anyone who feels under-achieved (probably in any contexts).
Outcomes-based Thinking? That's my new belief.
December 6, 2020
I didn't find this book 'lifechanging', 'outstanding' or 'wow' like some said. However, it provides a good framework to think. The idea is that features (outputs) create a change in behavior (outcomes). Change in behavior drives business results (impact). Thus, once the high-level impact is defined, one should first focus on what change in customer behavior needs to be created in order to achieve a high-level impact.
I must say I was very disappointed by chapters 4 and 5. Bad characters and dialogues made me feel like I was reading a poorly written self-help book.
I must say I was very disappointed by chapters 4 and 5. Bad characters and dialogues made me feel like I was reading a poorly written self-help book.
December 16, 2021
This book is short and to the point. I like the author's distinction between outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It makes sense to focus on behavior change outcomes rather than just output like feature x and feature y. The impact is the business impact the outcomes have. (e.g., more sales)
It’s such a simple model but very powerful.
I can recommend this book to everyone interested in leadership or product management.
It’s such a simple model but very powerful.
I can recommend this book to everyone interested in leadership or product management.
Read
March 3, 2025THE framework to think about how to instil value in the work you (as an IC) do within a corporation
September 8, 2019
Engaging and highly relevant
Even the slowest and laziest of readers in the Product space would find this book not only engaging but highly relevant to their field of work. It is a must read for all people who are either already in product development management or aspire to be part of the ecosystem.
Even the slowest and laziest of readers in the Product space would find this book not only engaging but highly relevant to their field of work. It is a must read for all people who are either already in product development management or aspire to be part of the ecosystem.
July 7, 2019
I changed a way I think about setting goals from output to outcomes. And change organization accordingly. And it is important change of thinking. Thank you.
October 7, 2019
The core idea of the book is cool. For the implementation details, you'll need to reach for other sources.
July 26, 2019
This little book packs a punch. If you are a product owner/manager this is a deep dive into one of the important facets of how you orient your work around a northstar. The title gives it away, don't focus on building a thing, but instead find the outcome that works for your business and build and act accordingly.
Seiden's definition of outcome brings clarity to the discussion - "an outcome is a change in human behavior that drives business results." It is not good enough that we build something. It is not good enough that the user likes it. It is only good enough when the user's behavior is changed in ways that drive business results. This involves product, engineering, marketing, customer success, etc. to make this happen.
Liked his magic "Magic Questions for Finding Outcomes"
* What are the user and customer behaviors that drive business results? (this the outcome we are trying to create)
* How can we get people to do more of these behaviors? (these are the features, policy changes, promotions, etc that we’ll do to try and create outcomes.)
* How do we know that we’re right? (this uncovers the dynamics of the system, as well as the tests and metrics we’ll use to measure our progress.)
There was one point in the book where he talked about a client he was consulting with and the effect of getting the key decision makers in the room and they all finally got shared alignment on what they were trying to do. Man, I would love to get there (see below).
---START OF QUOTE---
“In the next meeting, I asked them to talk about what they were worried about. It was night and day. They started telling their stories about their business. The head of [one department] was stressed, because [critical metrics] were down year over year. All the other stakeholders heard the concern, and agreed, ‘we have to focus on that.’ it was the first time in the process that everyone was aligned,” Emily said, “and it felt like a huge win.”
In other words, by shifting the focus, the whole company was able to step back from feature conversations and consider the business problems they needed to solve–the outcomes they wanted to create. In doing so, prioritization suddenly became clear.
---END OF QUOTE
Highly recommend this book for anyone involved in software development or product.
Seiden's definition of outcome brings clarity to the discussion - "an outcome is a change in human behavior that drives business results." It is not good enough that we build something. It is not good enough that the user likes it. It is only good enough when the user's behavior is changed in ways that drive business results. This involves product, engineering, marketing, customer success, etc. to make this happen.
Liked his magic "Magic Questions for Finding Outcomes"
* What are the user and customer behaviors that drive business results? (this the outcome we are trying to create)
* How can we get people to do more of these behaviors? (these are the features, policy changes, promotions, etc that we’ll do to try and create outcomes.)
* How do we know that we’re right? (this uncovers the dynamics of the system, as well as the tests and metrics we’ll use to measure our progress.)
There was one point in the book where he talked about a client he was consulting with and the effect of getting the key decision makers in the room and they all finally got shared alignment on what they were trying to do. Man, I would love to get there (see below).
---START OF QUOTE---
“In the next meeting, I asked them to talk about what they were worried about. It was night and day. They started telling their stories about their business. The head of [one department] was stressed, because [critical metrics] were down year over year. All the other stakeholders heard the concern, and agreed, ‘we have to focus on that.’ it was the first time in the process that everyone was aligned,” Emily said, “and it felt like a huge win.”
In other words, by shifting the focus, the whole company was able to step back from feature conversations and consider the business problems they needed to solve–the outcomes they wanted to create. In doing so, prioritization suddenly became clear.
---END OF QUOTE
Highly recommend this book for anyone involved in software development or product.
March 12, 2021
"Read the book after an year or so. Good refresher for me to think about how to think while thinking outcomes while creating product roadmaps. In summary : Outcomes matters not outputs. One should know the important sequence of steps in any planning : resources -> activties -> outputs -> outcomes -> impact"
March 27, 2021
This book gave me an entirely new perspective on how to drive product development basis customer behaviour. Also shared ideas on how we can use customer journeys to leverage the boosters and eliminate the blockers and then create an outcome based roadmap. This book is a must read for those interested in product management.
July 26, 2021
Extremely practical pocketbook that extends key concepts of lean and agile methodology to have an efficient strategic vision truly focused on the behavior of the end customer.
Whether you are a designer or not, it is fully recommended for you to get out of the bad business oriented and focused on deliverables!
Whether you are a designer or not, it is fully recommended for you to get out of the bad business oriented and focused on deliverables!
May 27, 2021
Um dos (talvez o) melhores livros que eu já li sobre Product Management. Embora ele aborde apenas um assunto da disciplina de gestão de produtos, para mim, esse é um dos assuntos mais importantes e que tem conexão com todas outras disciplinas.
November 29, 2021
A clever and concise lesson on RE-framing the work you do and why you do it.
August 2, 2021
Highly recommend for both engineers and product manager and program managers. It is a good book for everyone in the team to read. Short, crisp and to the point.
This book does a good job clarifying how you should differentiate between impact, outcome and output and how to setup to team towards outcome-based planning.
This book does a good job clarifying how you should differentiate between impact, outcome and output and how to setup to team towards outcome-based planning.
March 25, 2022
To the point, and with examples how to implement following outcomes over output.
January 10, 2023
This book is a must-read for anyone looking to shift their mindset towards a more customer-oriented approach. The author does an excellent job of explaining the difference between focusing on outcomes over outputs, and why it's essential to prioritize the outcomes to truly drive value for customers.
One of the things that I found particularly valuable about the book was the emphasis on continuous discovery. The author makes a compelling argument that to achieve true success, businesses need to continually seek out new opportunities to learn about and understand their customers' needs. By adopting this approach, businesses can not only stay ahead of the curve but also build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their customers.
Overall, "Outcomes over Outputs" is a thought-provoking and actionable book that I would highly recommend to anyone in a business or leadership role.
One of the things that I found particularly valuable about the book was the emphasis on continuous discovery. The author makes a compelling argument that to achieve true success, businesses need to continually seek out new opportunities to learn about and understand their customers' needs. By adopting this approach, businesses can not only stay ahead of the curve but also build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their customers.
Overall, "Outcomes over Outputs" is a thought-provoking and actionable book that I would highly recommend to anyone in a business or leadership role.
December 26, 2023
Me pidieron leerlo por mi trabajo, ya que estamos cambiando la Mentalidad y procesos para ir mejorando la estrategia. Es un libro con demasiado información que procesar para lo corto que es. 10000% recomendable para quien sea que trabaje con productos o permisos. Incluso emprendedores.
December 30, 2024
interesting insight
I love the focus on outcomes and the challenging of established patterns. However I felt the book was bulked up with repeated text and could have been more concise.
I picked up a few ideas I hope to try out in the future.
I love the focus on outcomes and the challenging of established patterns. However I felt the book was bulked up with repeated text and could have been more concise.
I picked up a few ideas I hope to try out in the future.
May 2, 2022
I philosophically agree with this book because of the work I’ve done on Key Predictive Indicators, and what should be measured. The author describes an outcome as: “a change in human behavior that drives business results.” It’s not about features, it’s about benefits. The hole, not the drill or drill bit. With cars you know when they’re done, they roll off the assembly line. But when is Google, or Facebook, done? So the book discusses Agile.
The author tells the story of the NGO digging wells in Africa so people wouldn’t have to walk and carry water for miles. All well and good, and the well is an outcome, not just an output, because it changes human behavior. However, he never told the rest of the story: Once the wells broke down, there was no one around able to fix them and people reverted back to carrying water, more frustrated than ever. Clayton Christensen tells this story in his book, The Prosperity Paradox. It’s not enough for NGOs to deliver outcomes if it doesn’t provide the underlying development necessary for continued innovation and improvement. In other words, free markets. This is the fallacy of the idea that charities can help nations develop. They cannot. Not one nation in history has developed through charity. You develop by creating wealth, which is done through entrepreneurialism and free markets.
The author does discuss leading and lagging indicators and the importance of experiments, which a lot of books on this topic don’t do. I also agree with his critique of OKRs:
“Even though OKRs sound like a good idea, it can be hard to write good OKRs. …often see teams just reverse engineering their current work into the language of OKR—which defeats the purpose. The whole point of OKR is to help you think critically about what you’re working on, not simply find a new way to talk about it. If you express your Key Result as a measurable customer behavior, you almost automatically have a well-written OKR.”
I also agree with his distinction between outcomes and impact: “Don’t mistake impact—high-level aspirational goals—for outcomes. Impact is important, but it’s too big for any one group to target.” The subjective theory of value could clarify, I believe, the author’s thinking about value, which is confusing. That said, a cogent short book on the importance of outcomes over outputs.
Notable
He cites, Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, “A good strategy is a coherent mix of policy and action designed to surmount a high-stakes challenge.”
The author tells the story of the NGO digging wells in Africa so people wouldn’t have to walk and carry water for miles. All well and good, and the well is an outcome, not just an output, because it changes human behavior. However, he never told the rest of the story: Once the wells broke down, there was no one around able to fix them and people reverted back to carrying water, more frustrated than ever. Clayton Christensen tells this story in his book, The Prosperity Paradox. It’s not enough for NGOs to deliver outcomes if it doesn’t provide the underlying development necessary for continued innovation and improvement. In other words, free markets. This is the fallacy of the idea that charities can help nations develop. They cannot. Not one nation in history has developed through charity. You develop by creating wealth, which is done through entrepreneurialism and free markets.
The author does discuss leading and lagging indicators and the importance of experiments, which a lot of books on this topic don’t do. I also agree with his critique of OKRs:
“Even though OKRs sound like a good idea, it can be hard to write good OKRs. …often see teams just reverse engineering their current work into the language of OKR—which defeats the purpose. The whole point of OKR is to help you think critically about what you’re working on, not simply find a new way to talk about it. If you express your Key Result as a measurable customer behavior, you almost automatically have a well-written OKR.”
I also agree with his distinction between outcomes and impact: “Don’t mistake impact—high-level aspirational goals—for outcomes. Impact is important, but it’s too big for any one group to target.” The subjective theory of value could clarify, I believe, the author’s thinking about value, which is confusing. That said, a cogent short book on the importance of outcomes over outputs.
Notable
He cites, Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, “A good strategy is a coherent mix of policy and action designed to surmount a high-stakes challenge.”
October 19, 2024
Short, to the point, insightful, practical. I wish all business books were like this.
December 16, 2022
This is a must read for anybody who is part of the world of building software products, companies or business. The approach it presents for how to thing about problem solving is incredibly useful. It’s also bound to be a major improvement for how you might be working today. This is especially relevant for Product Managers and designers. It’s an easy and fast read. But packed with utility. Highly recommended.
February 21, 2023
Great, concise little book explaining the mindset shift towards outcome focus. This is critical to becoming a great product manager, but also applies across all areas of any modern business. Focus less on the stuff you deliver and more on the value it delivers through changing customer behaviours. I would recommend this as essential reading for anyone starting out in the world of product or as an aid for anyone looking to influence their organisation to become more outcome focused.
January 9, 2022
It’s a well-written, short book that, in a graspable way, describes the significant difference between outcomes and outputs. In short, according to the author “outcome is a change in human behaviour that drives business results”.
Furthermore, it explains why an understanding of the discrepancy between an “impact” - a high-level company goal - and the outcome is also crucial and why both should exist simultaneously.
If you are a product person or a stakeholder of the product team, in this book you will find a bunch of inspirational information that will let you collaborate with the other in a mutually beneficial way. You will find a convincing explanation of why a feature-oriented approach takes you nowhere near delivering business results compared with outcome-based targets.
Furthermore, it explains why an understanding of the discrepancy between an “impact” - a high-level company goal - and the outcome is also crucial and why both should exist simultaneously.
If you are a product person or a stakeholder of the product team, in this book you will find a bunch of inspirational information that will let you collaborate with the other in a mutually beneficial way. You will find a convincing explanation of why a feature-oriented approach takes you nowhere near delivering business results compared with outcome-based targets.
March 21, 2022
This is a great little practical primer on how to talk about and put into practice outcome driven delivery, it's based in systems thinking and follows the principles of small experiments and feedback loops. If you are looking to implement change towards modern ways of working then it's definitely worth a read, even if you already understand the concepts it presents. Changing human behaviour is hard so I'm always looking for new ways to frame concepts to help people better understand them and come along the journey with me and this book provided me with that.
August 11, 2019
All content, no fluff, good stuff.
I absolutely love that the book focuses on delivering meaningful information without all the fluff and page fillers I see in other books. So many books come jam-packed with frivolous stories, words, and pages, it can be hard to extract the meaningful bits. Not this one! Big thanks to the author for getting to the point and delivering value early and continuously.
I absolutely love that the book focuses on delivering meaningful information without all the fluff and page fillers I see in other books. So many books come jam-packed with frivolous stories, words, and pages, it can be hard to extract the meaningful bits. Not this one! Big thanks to the author for getting to the point and delivering value early and continuously.
March 5, 2020
The book is straight to the point and gives a few examples that help framing the proposed solution. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 are the most juicy thanks to the use case presented.
Changing the behavior of an organization is not as simple as it is presented, so don’t expect to have immediate results. It does help that the book shows how to use a cross-reference approach by addressing both user value and business value.
Changing the behavior of an organization is not as simple as it is presented, so don’t expect to have immediate results. It does help that the book shows how to use a cross-reference approach by addressing both user value and business value.
April 30, 2021
Wow!
In this tiny book are powerful insights of how to change how organizations work to produce real results. Thinking in outcomes instead of inputs is hard but the author does a commendable job providing practical tips on how to achieve this. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands of many projects, endless product features and other initiatives that do little to change business results
In this tiny book are powerful insights of how to change how organizations work to produce real results. Thinking in outcomes instead of inputs is hard but the author does a commendable job providing practical tips on how to achieve this. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands of many projects, endless product features and other initiatives that do little to change business results
July 6, 2021
A company's success story is a relentless journey that periodically evaluates the user experience and customer experience, monitoring satisfaction levels in order to drive and realize its business results.
A short, yet concise study that explains how outcomes which result from a change in human behavior can have a quantum impact on outputs and results, whilst developing a user-centric and customer-centric way of working in the process.
A short, yet concise study that explains how outcomes which result from a change in human behavior can have a quantum impact on outputs and results, whilst developing a user-centric and customer-centric way of working in the process.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews