Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success

by Josh Seiden

an outcome is a change in human behavior that drives business results.

our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of value.

MVP as the the smallest thing you can do or the smallest thing you can make to learn if your hypothesis is correct.

Defining outcomes in terms of customer behaviors creates a more customer-centric and user-centric way of working.

“what (user/customer/employee) behaviors has this initiative created that are driving business results?”

This is how we can measure progress by using outcomes: insist that our teams plan in terms of outcomes, then ask repeatedly: “what new behaviors did your work create that are creating value for the business?”

If you express your Key Result as a measurable customer behavior, you almost automatically have a well-written OKR.

The less certain you are that your outputs (ie. the features you want to deliver) will deliver the results you seek, the more it makes sense to plan in terms of outcomes, and to build your roadmaps around sets of outcomes.