UX Playbook

##1 Defining outcomes

Business outcome

A business outcome measures how well the business is progressing. A business outcome is a lagging indicator: it measures something that is a result of other things that already happened. Examples are increasing revenue, profit, market share, or customer lifetime value, or reducing churn or operational costs.

We collaborate with business stakeholders to find out what business goals the company is aiming for, what these goals mean and what the context is.

We discuss how the company makes money by deconstructing the revenue model of the company into a simplified formula. This allows us to define which components we can influence from a product perspective.

Product outcomes

Business outcomes can be influenced by leading indicators we call product outcomes. A leading indicator measures a change in human behaviour (customer, user, employee, staff) that drives business results. So basically a product outcome measures how well the product is moving the business forward. Examples are '% of users that save a recipe', '% of users that buy an add-on', or '% lower bounce rate'.

The company vision, mission and strategy lead to the product vision and strategy, which in turn lead to product outcomes.

In practice, this means that we collaborate with business stakeholders to figure out how we might influence the specific components of our revenue model formula. We are looking for the measurable customer behaviour the team should focus on to drive business value. We set one product outcome that is within the product team's influence. We focus on it for a few months or quarters.

For workshop format, see [opportunity-mapping-w-business](../workflow/explore/opportunity-mapping-w-business "mention")

Tools