Metrics Canvas

Outputs v Outcomes

Running this workshop successfully requires that you go into it with a clear outcome for your team and appreciate the difference between an outcome and an output (actions in the above model).  It is the outcomes that the business wants and needs and typically multiple outputs might align to the same outcome.  

An output is likely to focus narrowly on the things your team or organisation do an outcome will articulate the reason they are doing it.  

A simple analogy for this would be a highway agency (as aligned to our four boxes above): 

• Outcome: improve the work-life balance of people in our district
• Outcome proxy: reduced commuting time for residents
• Action (output): build more motorways
• Action proxy: number of motorway miles built, average commute duration

While this example is vastly over-simplified it shows how outputs and outcomes come together in this model.