Outcome

Definition

An outcome is created by a product, service, or feature. Agile teams focus on outcomes to ensure that their work solves real problems and delivers value.

Context

Agile teams start with the change they want to cause for users or the business and work backwards to the implementation. They focus on this outcome so ideas, trade offs, and priorities stay relevant and waste is reduced. Every action the team takes and every Output they create is measured against whether it moves the outcome in the right direction.

Description

Outcomes describe what changes for users because of the work you deliver. They make effectiveness visible, since they show whether the product solves a real problem or creates a desired behavior. Outcomes answer the question of what is different for people as a result of our work.

To keep terms clear, distinguish outcomes from outputs. Outputs are what the team ships, for example a new recommendation engine, a redesigned checkout, or an updated report. Outputs are easy to count, but on their own they do not tell you whether they matter. Outcomes are the changes that follow for users, for example more people engage with recommended content, checkout completion rises, or satisfaction improves.

Outcomes guide decisions in agile teams. They shape Sprint Goals, focus Product Backlog ordering, and guide which experiments to run next. Teams inspect real user behavior and feedback, then adapt outputs to move the outcome in the right direction. This empirical loop helps you learn which features really result in value for your audience, not what you assumed at the start.

Example

A marketplace team sets the outcome that more new sellers publish a first listing within one day of signing up. They simplify photo upload and clarify pricing hints, and within two weeks the share of new sellers who publish on day one rises from 45 percent to 60 percent. This 33% increase of their target metric will have a long term effect on sellers generating revenue earlier. This leads to more happy sellers and additionally increases overall revenues as well as customer lifetime value.

Common Misunderstandings

Teams sometimes confuse outcomes with output. For example, launching a feature is an output, not an outcome. If that feature does not improve the user experience or move a business metric, the outcome has not been achieved.

Want to Learn More?

Since you now learned what outcome is, you can read about output next, to be able to differentiate those terms.