Using Outcomes to Deliver Impact

What Makes an Outcome

Many teams organize their work around shipping features, completing tasks, and hitting satisfaction targets. This approach focuses on outputs—the things you build and deliver. But there's a more effective way to create impact: organizing around outcomes instead.

Outcomes are changes in behavior that create value. They focus on how people's actions change as a result of your work, rather than what you built or delivered.

When I redesigned NationBuilder's email creation workflow, instead of measuring feature completion, we measured success by behavioral change: "Campaign managers now create emails 40% faster."

Writing Outcome Statements

I use Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden's framework from Who Does What By How Much? to structure meaningful outcome statements with three essential components:

• Who? Whose behavior are we talking about?

• Does what? What specific behavior are we measuring?

• By how much? What's the numerical target?

Here's how I applied this to the NationBuilder email project:

• Campaign managers (who) create emails (does what) 40% faster (by how much)

• Campaign managers (who) successfully add personalization to emails (does what) without technical support 80% more often (by how much)

Each statement focuses on a person doing something differently, not on interface changes or feature additions.

How Value Flows in B2B Software

In B2B software, value flows through connected levels: individual user success leads to organizational success, which drives business results.

User Value → Organizational Value → Business Value

The NationBuilder email project demonstrates this flow:

1. User Value: Campaign managers create emails 40% faster with real-time preview and improved editing tools.

2. Organizational Value: Campaigns send more effective personalized emails, driving 29% higher open rates and 6x donation growth.

3. Business Value: Reduced churn, improved customer acquisition, and increased payment processing revenue from higher donation rates.

When you create experiences that make users more successful by solving real problems effectively, customers respond with increased usage, loyalty, and referrals.

How This Approach Has Shaped My Work

I've made outcomes definition a standard part of my process. Rather than jumping into solutions, I work with teams to define exactly whose behavior should change and how we'll measure it. This helps prevent building features that nobody actually needs.

The NationBuilder email project succeeded because we measured behavioral change rather than feature completion. This clarity shaped every design decision and stakeholder conversation throughout the project.