Outcome-driven Mindset

I have always been a fan of outcome driven environments, teams, roadmaps and approaches. But many people and teams get confused with outcomes and outputs. They focus on results and outputs but ignore the outcome. There is no point in delivering an output without an outcome.

While an output is a product or service or task that we create or deliver or perform, an outcome could be a problem that we solve with our product or service or task and is something that we intend to achieve through a set of well-defined actions. An outcome is a goal or an end result that we want to achieve and has a purpose that gets served in the process.

Defining a desired outcome requires a deep understanding of users’ problems and an approach to solving them. When you complete a demo with a prospect, it is an output. But when you close the deal and manage to sell the product or service, that's when you are being outcome driven.

It is also important to not confuse Outcomes with purpose. Outcomes are events or deliverables or impact or change you bring in through your actions to achieve a purpose. When you attend a meeting without a purpose(agenda), you might end up spending hours discussing but without any outcome.

Outcome-driven Roadmaps:

Let's see what it means in Product Management terminology. Feature is the output while the benefit is the outcome. Feature is what our product or service offers, benefit is what customers are looking for. Most Product Managers focus on feature driven roadmaps. Feature driven roadmaps would have details about features, enhancements and fixes without details on the objectives, reasons or the end result. When we make this product roadmap, outcome-driven we add context to the features, fixes and enhancements. In outcome-driven roadmaps, everything is there for a reason and has details on how a problem is solved, rather than what the feature offers. The devil is in the details, both features and benefits seem to be same. Customers are more interested in solving their problems, enhancing their capabilities, minimising their efforts and maximizing the ROI. The more you tell about the features and what the products offers, the more disengaged the customer gets. On the other hand, when you address their problems, discuss how your product can solve their specific issues and the benefits they get from your product, they get involved and the discussions become more lively and engaged.

Outcome-driven Marketing:

In a marketing world, the common trap of promoting features instead of explaining the benefits, can be avoided through outcome-driven approaches. Once we understand the customer and the problem areas, we could position our service or product in a better way. There is no point in marketing a product or service when prospective customers do not see any benefits in your campaign or cannot identify what solutions you offer for their problems.

Applying Outcome-driven mindset at work

As a Developer, while implementing a requirement, a resource should look at the context on why a particular user story is being implemented in this way, he needs to understand the purpose. Only then he could be pro-active, visualize all the user scenarios and error handling. If he is focussed on meeting deadlines, sweeping the bugs under the mat, just delivering the code without knowing the outcome he needs to achieve on the outcome, he is being ineffective.

As a Leader, if we are just process-oriented, we might think that we are delivering the outcomes with an assumption that "right process always delivers a right result". We should change our perspective on how we think about results and process. An outcome and the purpose it serves should determine the process. If the team has clarity on the purpose and the outcome they need to achieve, then the results are more purposeful, it leads to an outcome-driven culture.

In Team meetings, if every participant knows the purpose and the outcome they need from the meeting, it would be more effective. There is no point in discussing for hours without an outcome. We also need to understand that every participant might have their own purpose and expected outcome, we need to respect that. When you have a clear outcome in mind, every topic you discuss and every second you spend will be towards achieving the outcome.

If you are conducting an Interview to hire new resources, think of the outcome you need from the discussion. The primary focus should be on assessment, determining if the resource has all the skills you need for your company, would he adapt etc. Unfortunately in some interviews, the interviewer focusses on asking what he knows, rather than asking what is required for the role and ends up creating negative vibes. If we are aware of the outcome we intend to produce, we will not waver.

In a Customer Support, a resource needs to understand and determine the outcome before attending the issue. He needs to ensure that end users are satisfied and their problem/concern is addressed. If the resource is focussed on the knowledge base and closing the tickets\issues, then he might end up closing the ticket but the end user might still reopen or escalate the issue.

Outcome-driven approach in Daily Life:

Outcome oriented individuals are bound to be more productive, happier and more satisfied. We should never think of tasks and to-dos but should plan outcomes to achieve by end of the day, week or month. The problem with focus on tasks, to-dos is that the list can grow and we may never complete all the tasks due to paradox of choices, plans and tasks. It could lead to paralysis and we may never get the sense of completion or gratification or happiness or satisfaction or productivity. Outcome-driven task management has high-level tasks and to-dos and there will not be any conflicts or contradictions.. We are always motivated while doing the tasks, however mundane they are and have sense of clarity. We do everything for a reason and we do not get spoilt by choices or distractions as we have an outcome to achieve at the end.