Outcome vs Output

Have you noticed these two terms being used interchangeably? I have, and it can be confusing, especially if you’re not a native English speaker.

Outputs are the things you produce - code, documentation, artefacts, design mock-ups.

Examples:

• Shipped a new version of a mobile app
• Built a monitoring dashboard in Grafana
• Wrote documentation for a service

Outcomes measure the value of impact of what was built. They don’t have a reference to how they were achieved. The how falls in the camp of “output”.

Examples:

• Increased daily active users (DAU) / monthly active users (MAU) by 15%
• Reduced customer support tickets by 40%
• Grew review by 12% for a new feature

The key distinction is:

• Outputs - what we create or deliver
• Outcomes - impact and value those outputs generate