Outcomes Over Outputs: Saeed Khan Clears up Misconceptions About The Maxim
By Tremis Skeete, for Product Coalition
We have all witnessed the power of hyperbole. Many experts use the technique to sensationalize concepts in order to establish their importance. In the world of advertising, hyperbolic statements are made quite often — because they are designed to attract people so that individuals and/or businesses can grow a customer base.
Remember “America Runs on Dunkin,” by Dunkin Donuts? Remember “Red Bull Gives You Wings,” by Red Bull? These slogans are examples of hyperbole designed to boost the brand popularity of product businesses.
What makes these statements hyperbolic? Of course we know that America does not literally run on Dunkin Donuts products, but the statement implies that their coffee and pastries give customers an energy boost, thanks to caffeine and sugar. As for Red Bull giving you wings, of course we know that people don’t fly after they drink it, but the statement implies that when people drink Red Bull, the energy boost is so great, people feel like they can “fly”, figuratively speaking. That’s the power of hyperbole.
Using a hyperbole is a great marketing tactic, so it shouldn’t surprise us that product professionals also use it to drive certain outcomes — but there is a downside.
Hyperboles are figurative in nature, and yet, the people who listen to them at times — they have a way of distorting their meaning, and instead, either take the statements literally, or, they distort their true meaning in order to carry out their own agendas.
Here’s a maxim that arguably has that affect: “Outcomes over Outputs.”
Outcomes over Outputs has been mentioned by many, and it was reportedly made popular by the innovation consultants, Joshua Seiden and Jeff Gothelf. Jeff and Joshua are the co-authors of the Lean UX book series, and the critically acclaimed book entitled, “Sense and Respond”. Jeff is known to write periodically on the topic of Outcomes over Outputs, and Joshua is the author of the book, “Outcomes Over Output: Why Customer Behavior Is The Key Metric For Business Success.”
Since the emergence of the “Outcomes over Outputs” maxim, many product people debate over the pros and cons of applying this philosophy in their work. Some talk about the waste that exists in organizations as a result of building and releasing as many features [outputs] as possible, but not generating commensurate value for customers and the business itself. In this case, some believe that a focus on outcomes is the solution.
Others believe that a focus on outcomes will negatively impact their ability to release features [outputs] as quickly as possible, especially since speed to market is still a winning differentiator for businesses.
And back and forth the debate goes.
In light of the seemingly challenging quest to find common ground that can benefit the product development practice as a whole — product specialist and founder of the Toronto-based firm, Transformation Labs, Saeed Khan has decided to shed light on this debate.
In his LinkedIn post, Saeed describes pathways towards understanding how and why building outputs are just as valuable as articulating the outcomes. He explains how to get past the propaganda, and cultivate a healthy respect for the value of generating outputs as a way to make successful cases for focusing on the right outcomes.
In his own way, he makes the point that the hyperbole around “Outcomes over Outputs” distracts us from recognizing how to complement the capabilities of outcomes with the capabilities of outputs. Saeed also takes it a step further and defines a useful taxonomy that can empower product people to apply their skills towards building services successfully.
It’s intriguing to see how the “Outcomes over Outputs” debate has evolved over the years. Perhaps that was the point. If that’s true, then kudos to Jeff and Josh for the great marketing strategy.
Now it’s time to make sense of the distractions created by their fans.
When one says, “Outcomes over Outputs”, it’s not a way of saying:
- “Outcomes are what really matters, not outputs.”
- “Outcomes are more important than outputs.”
- “Outputs are nothing. The outcomes are everything.”
- “Outputs mean nothing if you don’t understand the outcomes first.”
“Outcomes over Outputs” is another way of saying:
- “Think about the outcomes in order to understand the choices for which outputs to build.”
- “Don’t just dive into building a feature [output], without understanding which outcomes you’re striving to actualize for customers.”
- “Define outcomes in the terms of goals and/or objectives and/or key results, so product teams can clearly understand where to put their focus when they build specific features [outputs].”
- “To determine if a feature [output] is effective, test its performance by seeing if the feature will give customers the capability to bring about specific outcomes for themselves.”
Saeed’s LinkedIn post is an attempt to address the ambiguity, define the practical context, and hopefully to bring clarity to the minds of many, so teams can focus on what matters the most — product innovation.
Read a copy of Saeed’s LinkedIn post below to find out more:
For all those “Outcomes over Outputs” folks, it’s important to understand why a focus on OUTPUTS is very popular.
⚫ Outputs are timely.
⚫ Outputs are easily measured.
⚫ Outputs are often very visible.
⚫ People understand outputs.
⚫ People are impressed by outputs.
⚫ Outputs have your name on them for all to see.
Outcomes on the other hand don’t have these attributes.
🔸 Outcomes can lag.
🔸 Outcomes aren’t always easily measured.
🔸 Outcomes aren’t often visible.
🔸 People don’t always understand outcomes.
🔸 People aren’t always impressed by outcomes.
🔸 Outcomes are a team effort so harder to take credit for.
“Outcomes over outputs” is a catchy mantra, but to really be outcome focused, you need to change the culture of the organization to focus, appreciate and highlight Outcomes and not just outputs.
Outputs aren’t bad. We need outputs to achieve outcomes. So I’m not anti-output here. In fact, to get to an Outcome focus, you need to have a really great Output muscle first.
And to get great Outputs, we need knowledge/skills/abilities and actions. So let’s understand the full flow:
Knowledge -> Skills -> Actions -> Outputs -> Outcomes
If you want great Outcomes, start from the left and make sure people have knowledge/skills to perform the actions (process) to get to those outputs and then outcomes.
It’s a journey of both individuals and organizations.
