Better Outcomes

There's a lot of talk about focusing on 'outcomes'.

This mainly originates from LeanUX-land, and the mantra, 'Outcomes over Outputs', which as soundbites go, is mainly good advice, but it's also exactly the kind of catchy, short form, tweetable phrase that is memorable and repeatable, but on it's own, not that actionable.

So, better outcomes...

We'd all like better outcomes, but what does that mean? And what will it take to get us there?

I'm an generally a bit of an idealist, so I'd like to think that means to really succeed, they need to be better for everyone, (and society, and the planet, and the future).

Better:

Clarity on "Why".
Focus on customer needs
Discovery & Research
Collaboration
Communication (in every direction)
Meetings & workshops
Goal Definition and alignment
Planning
Progress tracking and reporting
Visibility across Dev, UX, PM, Org
Continuous learning & Iterative improvement
Autonomy based on trust with responsibility
Procedures and processes everywhere (More human, less bureaucratic)
Culture of inclusivity and contribution

If... we can achieve all of these we'll have happier customers, empowered teams, who are solving real problems for customers and creating actual value for their organisations.

Uhhh, that's quite a lot of things...

Maybe we can work through that list and it'll all be good?

Well, it's not really a list...it's more like this.

So, where do we start? Of course, in time honoured fashion, it depends.

It depends on where you are in your product/service/project lifecycle.
It depends on where your organisation is culturally.
It depends where your team(s) are at in both maturity, resilience, happiness and how much friction they can tolerate/thrive on.