Outcomes over Outputs: Are you measuring your success by outputs or outcomes?

Have you ever wondered why some businesses are more successful than others, despite putting in the same efforts?

📹 A fascinating video by Josh Seiden explains about focusing on outcomes rather than just the amount of work outputted. It's liquid gold and we've laid out the steps with examples of how to implement it for your business.

👉🏽 What are the Outcomes?

Outcomes are measurable changes in human behavior that will drive business results.

🔍 Why is it important to measure success in terms of outcome rather than the amount of work outputted?

Because Outputs can be correct and great but they may not necessarily drive the outcomes.

💡 There is a Logic Model Framework to understand this properly;

Resources —> Activities —> Outputs —> Outcomes —> Impact

Now, How to create impact? 🚀

1. Focus on creating systems and processes that will drive the impact - this will have a more lasting impact than the output itself;💻

Eg; A business could implement an automated email marketing system to drive engagement and conversions. This system could be designed to segment customers based on their interests, behaviours, and purchasing patterns, and then send personalized and relevant emails to each segment. It can drive the outcomes, such as increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved customer LTV.

2. Understand the Success factors and bottlenecks in the current process;🔍

Eg; A business could analyze its sales funnel to identify where customers are dropping off or experiencing friction. This analysis could reveal that the checkout process is too complicated or that the product pages are not persuasive enough. By identifying these bottlenecks, the business can focus on improving them to drive the desired outcomes.

3. List the outcomes that will bring an impact and prioritize it. Communicate in precise and comparable terms like %, ratios and not standalone numbers;📈

Eg; A business could prioritize outcomes such as reducing CAC. To achieve this outcome, the business could focus on initiatives such as improving user experience, optimizing its social media advertising campaigns, and increasing repeat rates. Accordingly, the business could set precise KPIs like reducing CAC by x%, increasing repeat rate by y%, ROAS should be Z times, etc.

4. Create hypothesis or A/B testing or scenarios of outputs that can drive the outcomes and measure the impact of specific outcomes;🧪

Eg; A business could create hypotheses about how to improve its website conversion rate, such as adding customer reviews or simplifying the checkout process. These hypotheses could be tested through A/B testing to determine which changes have the greatest impact on the desired outcomes and can make data-driven decisions about which initiatives to pursue.

5. Select the output which creates the biggest bang for the buck and implement it;🪙

Eg; A business could test various channels of promotion and advertisement to determine which ones drive the highest RoI. Based on the results of these tests, the business could implement the most effective channels and continue to test and optimize them over time.