No One Cares About Your Feature Parade

Let’s be honest. Most businesses secretly love outputs. Outputs are comforting. Outputs are neat. Outputs make us feel busy and therefore important. Outputs give us something to brag about in status meetings. “We shipped 10 features last quarter!” “We held 14 brainstorming sessions!” “We published 37 blog posts!” Cue the applause, high-fives, and maybe a DoorDash gift card for a celebratory lunch. (You can tell I'm a remote worker.)

But here’s the kicker: outputs don’t pay the bills. Outcomes do.

Outputs are activity. Outcomes are results. And if you’re managing a business, a product, or even your own career by outputs, you may be measuring all the wrong things.

This post will explore why outcomes matter more than outputs, how to determine what outcomes to measure, and some real-life examples of both good and hilariously bad outcomes. And yes, I promise some humor along the way, because nothing says "outcome" like laughing your way through a performance review.

Outputs vs. Outcomes: The Classic Mix-Up

Let’s start with a clear definition:

• Output: The thing you make or do. It’s the deliverable. (Example: "We released a new donor report feature.")
• Outcome: The impact of that thing. The change it caused. (Example: "Nonprofits used the report to identify lapsed donors and increased retention by 12%.")

Think of it like going to the gym, which is an analogy I can relate to. The output is the fact that you showed up and did 20 bicep curls. The outcome is whether your arms can carry all the groceries in one trip (the ultimate sign of success).

Unfortunately, too many teams measure their success by counting the curls, not checking if anyone can lift the milk. (so to speak)

Why Outcomes Matter (and Outputs Can Lie)

Outputs can trick you into a false sense of accomplishment. Just because you did something doesn’t mean it did anything.

Scenario 1: Marketing Team Bragging Rights Output: "We sent out 20 email campaigns this month!" Outcome: "Open rates dropped 30%, and three people unsubscribed using the subject line field to tell us how much they hate us." (Just a fictitious example...relax Marketing teams.)

Scenario 2: Product Team Heroics Output: "We shipped 15 new features!" Outcome: "NPS tanked because users were overwhelmed and confused, and support tickets doubled." (Same as above...relax Product team. It's just an example.)

The lesson? Measuring outputs alone is like judging a comedian by the number of jokes they tell, not whether anyone actually laughed. (Which is why Dad Jokes often fail. Lots of volume, little impact. But I'm not going to lie. I can spit Dad jokes with the best of them!)

How to Determine the Right Outcomes

Figuring out which outcomes to measure can be tricky. Here’s a simple process to get it right:

1. Start with the "Why." Ask, “What’s the point of this initiative?” If you can’t answer, you probably don’t need to do it.
2. Imagine the After State. What will be different if this thing works? More revenue? Lower churn? Happier customers? Write that down.
3. Make It Measurable. “Delight our users” is nice but vague. “Increase repeat logins by 25%” is specific and trackable.
4. Focus on What You Can Influence. You may not control global interest rates, but you can control your onboarding experience.
5. Prioritize Impact over Vanity. Track metrics that actually move the business, not just the ones that make a dashboard look busy.

Examples of Good Outcomes to Measure

Here are some examples of outcomes that actually tell you something meaningful:

Increased Customer Retention: Measuring churn reduction after rolling out a new support model.

Revenue per Customer Growth: If your upsell campaigns are actually working, this number will go up.

Reduced Time-to-Value: New customers reaching their first “aha moment” faster.

Behavior Change: Tracking whether customers use a feature more often, not just that you launched it.

Efficiency Gains: Support tickets resolved 30% faster after implementing an AI powered support bot.

Each of these is tied to actual value creation. Either for the business or for the customer.

Examples of Bad (or Funny) Outcomes to Measure

In the interest of illustrating the flip-side, here are some “don’t try this at home (or the office)” examples:

Number of Features Released: Because 10 mediocre features do not equal one great one.

Meeting Hours Logged: Congrats, you’ve measured your misery.

Number of PowerPoint Slides Created: No one has ever said, “Wow, that 120-slide deck saved our quarter.”

Social Media Followers Without Context: A million followers who never engage with you is just a very large, very quiet room.

Volume of Coffee Consumed by Team: Although this may correlate with outputs, it rarely correlates with outcomes (unless your goal is world record level jitteriness).

Yeah, some of these are absurd, but so are some of the ways that I've seen teams measure outcomes.

Real-World Example: The Restaurant Makeover

Let’s bring this to life with a story. Imagine a restaurant that decides to “improve customer experience.”

Outputs: They repaint the walls, redesign the menus, and train staff to say “my pleasure” instead of “no problem.”

Outcome: Customer satisfaction scores go up 20%, average ticket size increases by $7, and repeat visits double.

Notice how the outcome proves whether the outputs mattered. A shiny new menu design doesn’t mean much if no one orders dessert.

How to Keep Your Team Focused on Outcomes

1. **Plan your outcomes up-front. **Not as an after-thought. When you're creating your product brief or requirements, be sure to include the expected outcomes. This helps you to prioritize your work, create a plan to capture outcome metrics, and helps socialize your changes across the organization. (Answer the "why are we doing this?").
2. Make Outcomes Visible. Put them on dashboards and talk about them in every team meeting.
3. Celebrate Impact, Not Just Activity. Give kudos for results, not just for shipping things.
4. Link Compensation to Outcomes. If you want people to focus on results, reward results.
5. Do Post-Mortems with Outcomes in Mind. If something shipped and didn’t move the needle, learn why.
6. Teach Everyone to Ask, “So What?” Every time someone proposes a project, challenge them to explain the outcome.
7. Follow-up. Checking in on your targeted outcomes one time on release isn't enough. Continue to monitor your outcomes. Communicate your outcomes.

The Humor in Outcome Thinking

Focusing on outcomes forces you to confront reality — and reality can be funny.

• "We spent six weeks on a feature that only my mom used." Outcome: My mom is happy, but our churn didn’t budge.
• "We doubled ad spend and got… the same number of leads." Outcome: We just donated money to Google.
• "We launched a new onboarding wizard and reduced calls to support by 40%." Outcome: Champagne. (And fewer support reps crying quietly in the corner.)

Closing Thoughts: Make It Count

At the end of the day, outputs are easy, but outcomes are what matter. Nobody remembers how many features you shipped, meetings you sat through, or campaigns you launched. They remember the results: the revenue growth, the customer wins, the problems solved.

So, the next time someone proudly announces, “We produced 15 new reports this quarter!” smile politely and ask, “Cool. What happened because of them?” If you get blank stares, you’ve got some work to do.

Because in business, in leadership, and frankly in life, it’s not about how many bicep curls you do. It’s about whether you can carry all the groceries in one trip. Outcomes over outputs, always.

Thanks as always for taking the time to listen to my pontification.

Wishing all of you the very best.

Mike