I’ve worked at several companies where product teams were more focused on how many stories they delivered instead of true business outcomes.
Joshua Seiden’s book Outcomes over Output gives you techniques for focusing on customer behavior — the key metric for business success.
The entire book is excellent. I finished reading a section for managers that resonated with me. For example, if asked to increase sales, create a customer journey map and review it. Ask yourself, What behaviors in the system predict higher sales and how do we encourage those behaviors?
Some takeaways from the chapter:
- Planning with outputs limits the team’s agility and problem-solving flexibility.
- Create outcomes-based roadmaps that list questions, themes… instead of features.
- Customer Journey Maps help visualize the system in terms of customer behavior. Look for outcomes in the system.
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