Originally written in French. Translated by AI — the meaning has been preserved, not the prose.
Short definition
The result obtained on the customer's side from using a product: time saved, a better decision, better coordination, reduced friction, faster learning, simpler access to information.
Full definition
In the product literature, the outcome designates the change of behaviour or situation for the user, as opposed to what was shipped to obtain it. It belongs to the customer: it is observed there, not in the code repository nor in the release note.
In the articles on this blog, the term serves to name what market intelligence must try to reconstruct behind a competitor's release, and what a user implicitly compares a tool against — the effort it spares them, not the list of what it offers. The same outcome can be obtained by very different product answers, and it is that independence from form which makes it the right level for comparing two products.
Usage in the field
The term comes into play in analysing a competitor's move, in formulating a discovery hypothesis, in writing a commercial promise and in defining the success criteria of a shipped feature.
Synonyms and variants
Customer result, benefit obtained, value in use, "what it changes for them".
Not to be confused with
- Output — Output — what the team ships: feature, screen, integration. One is observed at the customer's, the other in the product.
- Business stake — Business stake — the customer's business objective or organizational constraint, expressed with no reference to the tool; it pre-exists the product, where the outcome is the result of using it.
- Use case / JTBD — Use case / JTBD — the act of work the customer is trying to accomplish; the outcome is what they get from it once it is better equipped.
Examples
"Time saved, a better decision, better coordination, reduced friction" — the enumeration as used here.
"What need or what outcome is this competitor trying to address?" — the usage in a position of analysis, applied to a third party's move.
Ambiguities / debates
The border with business impact isn't settled: some teams call an outcome a company indicator — retention rate, revenue per account — others reserve it for the change experienced by the user. The sense retained here is the second: the result is observed with the person working with the tool.