Outcome vs Output

Success is an ambiguous word, with just as many intangibly squishy synonyms like "delivering value," "having an impact," and "great results."

And when it comes to celebrating our team's successes, highlighting the value we bring in our annual reviews, writing an impactful resume, or sharing the results of our work, the ambiguity of these terms do us no favors in helping us determine what we should capture.

And so we write about the wrong things.

To avoid this pitfall, I always remind myself to focus on Outcome and not Output.

Output is the work we produce: The emails we send, meetings we schedule, PowerPoints we build, lines of code we write, or things we fixed. Output isn't bad or good. It's just a means to an end (the Outcome).

Outcome is what happens because of your output (and sometimes despite it).

You may have led 5 projects, managed 50 people, wrote 500 lines of code, fixed 5,000 bugs - and all of those are meaningless (yes, even fixing 5,000 bugs!) if nothing good came of it.

Maybe those 5 projects came in under budget. Maybe the 50 people you managed all reported huge career growth, high team satisfaction, or delivered above and beyond. Maybe those 500 lines of code optimized your app to run 25% faster. Maybe the 5,000 bug fixes meant a more stable & secure application.

Those are more Outcome-focused - albeit, still superficial. These outcomes imply goodness. Of course, we'd want the app to run 25% faster...but...why? What does a faster app get us? Why should projects be under budget? Why do you want a happy team? What does a stable a secure app do for you?

Like a tree falling in an empty forest, if an app runs 25% faster and no one is using it, does it even matter? 

The sound of the falling tree is an Output. It's inconsequential. However, fallen tree have Outcomes that are hard to ignore: negative outcomes like erosion, desertification, and positive outcomes like feeding new growth, and hosting all kinds of fungi, insects and animals.

The most objective and universal measure of an Outcome is revenue. When you can express an Outcome in terms of revenue, that's amazing. Fixing 5,000 bugs resulting in a $5M increase in revenue is huge. But, let's be honest, sometimes it's hard to see the direct correlation. Sometimes we're too far from dollars, or don't readily have access to that information. 

That's why the world is full of proxies for revenue: NPS, active users, new users, utilization, reviews, lead & cycle times, task completion times, and so much more. Anything worth doing should be measurable (otherwise how do you know it's 'worth doing'?)

Go ahead and re-read your resume, review your LinkedIn profile, scrutinize an announcement or employee review. How much of it is Output, and how much should be an Outcome?

Popular

Work Experience vs Professional Experience

Image
In reviewing a bunch of resumes this week, I noticed quite a lot of resumes with a  "Work Experience"  section. In each of those resumes, people had de-valuing some very valuable  experience - and I write that with no exaggeration. The problem is people were looking at their experience purely through the "Job Title/Relevancy" lens and had reduced their experience down to a list of discrete, random, disconnected jobs. No interconnectedness, no narrative thread weaving through it all. As much as you may feel some jobs have no way of being connected, the reality is  you   are always the connection . To not connect them on your resume is to lose all that growth, knowledge, skills, impact, value, and trajectory. In other words - you lose the " You " in the resume. I recommended they start with a small change. Reword "Work Experience" to "Professional Experience" because, ultimately, every single job they had was in service of building their ...
Read more

Let's Clear Up The Ambiguity!

Image
Job seeking is hard - especially when you factor the ambiguity around expectations, the lack of transparency and consistency around process. It's frustrating dealing with the sheer subjectivity of everyone's opinions. Just think of even the basics: How long should your resume really be? Traditional black and white, or modern? Should you include a headshot? Oh - and cover letters - are those needed? Is anyone actually reading the cover letter? What are they looking for? Is there a bias for people with a more traditional background? Worst of all: The dreaded typo  that you catch only after applying to your dream job.  Are typos really going to cost you the opportunity??? To help bring some clarity to the process, I surveyed a bunch of hiring managers. The results were really interesting, and very illuminating.     If you're on the job hunt, I hope this information helps out! One final note: My recent post,  7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume , factors a lot of...
Read more

FAQs for a Software Engineering Hiring Manager

Image
Technical Interviews have evolved a lot since the early I transitioned from being a Software Engineer to an Engineering Manager. Particularly in the post-Covid era, there's been a greater emphasis on the person, which I think is an important and welcome change. Over the decade of interviewing hundreds of coders, I've also had the pleasure of working with various bootcamps, colleges, and hundreds of individual job seekers on LinkedIn. Across all the changes over the past years, across the various locations and mediums, something remained consistent throughout: The questions I get asked.  With that in mind, I thought - why not make a FAQ from my perspective as a hiring manager? While this is my perspective, it's based off years of observation and supporting data. But that being said, advice is not fact. You may disagree with certain points, and that's OK. Opinions we disagree with allow us to better understand our own views. At best, I hope these responses help you...
Read more

7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Resume

Image
  Since sharing my resume template  I've received plenty of feedback from job seekers, HR and hiring managers - all of whom value its purpose. Two (now former!) jobseekers even shared that as soon as they used my template, they were getting calls. Something about this template works, and given the traction it's getting others, I wanted to share - in more detail - why  this approach works so well.  Before continuing, let me give an important disclaimer: This resume isn't a miracle cure that's going to land anyone their dream job. Unless they're filled with lies, resumes are only as good as the candidate themselves. But they can also be a whole lot worse. This template and approach are all about maximizing the potential candidates have by highlighting and summarizing key areas.  Last point before beginning: If you don't know me, it's worth stating this advice comes from more than a decade of having hiring a broad range of coders: straight out of college, hig...
Read more

7 Steps to Building your Portfolio MVP

Image
Often when I suggest to coders that they build a portfolio, I'll hear back: "I don't need one..." "With all the effort it takes to apply, where will I find the time?" Simply put, having a portfolio's never going to hurt your chances at landing a job - it can only help. That second question is where a lot of struggle - because applying to jobs can be time consuming. Especially if you're wrapping up a bootcamp, or having to manually type in your resume info after uploading your resume. That's why I made these 7 steps which, when done correctly, can really help you stand out with a hiring manager. And, the best part is, it should only take you 2 days. Being the Agile-Obsessive that I am, it's all about maximizing value while minimizing effort. Fix links to your Resume, GitHub, LinkedIn, etc. at the top where they're always accessible. Link to everything here - and then remove all other links on your Resume except your Portfolio link . It sa...
Read more