You would think that someone with the word “product” in their title would be fixated on outputs, or features that cross the finish line on a specific delivery date. Yet, many product leaders feel otherwise.
When we asked local pros which is more important in the development process, they all said outcomes trumped the product itself.
“At the end of the day, outcomes are what customers pay for, and they often care less about what happened behind the scenes to get there,” said Leon Tsivin, director of product at Shapeways.
By focusing on the outcome of the recent launch of a new product, Tsivin and his team were able to hone in on their customers, partners and proprietary technology while producing fewer outputs, he said.
Like Tsivin, other product leaders across NYC have profited from an outcome-focused approach. For Dylan Nielsen, head of product at FireHydrant, this type of strategy allows his teammates to incorporate ingenuity and individuality in the development process.
“By focusing on outcomes, product teams have the room to develop solutions creatively, giving the entire team space to make an impact through their individual skills,” Nielsen said.
Built In NYC caught up with Tsivin, Nielsen and another local product pro to discover how an outcome-focused approach has benefited their teams.
Shapeways’ platform gives companies access to industrial 3D manufacturing.
Share an anecdote or example of how focusing on outcomes benefited your team and/or the product as a whole.
With outcomes being the results we want to see from our business and customers, we focus on them as a true measure of success, often with a goal of minimal outputs. At the end of the day, outcomes are what customers pay for, and they often care less about what happened behind the scenes to get there.
At the end of the day, outcomes are what customers pay for, and they often care less about what happened behind the scenes to get there.”
One recent outcome was the launch of a new product offering in our high-definition, full-color material that enables customers to 3D print in a new technology, producing vivid, photo-realistic, multi-color models. We wanted to offer this capability while balancing cost and capital investment, so we used our proprietary software in partnership with our supply chain manufacturers to produce parts in this material rather than print them at our internal facilities. The resulting outcome was beautiful parts designed by our customers, printed by our partners and enabled by our technology — meaning everybody wins.
Stack Overflow’s platform is designed to help coders learn, share their knowledge, collaborate and build their careers.
When approaching the development of new products or features, why are outcomes more important than outputs?
The pandemic made us completely reevaluate our strategy for talent. We shelved our entire planned roadmap, which was built on assumptions of a robust jobs pipeline. Instead, we refocused on our end goal: enabling technologists to discover and build meaningful, long-term connections with relevant companies.
What truly matters is impact: the value you create and the outcomes you achieve.”
The shift gave us the flexibility to adapt to a rapidly changing market. Instead of optimizing job applications during a global hiring freeze, we prioritized discovery of — and engagement with — interesting companies. We encouraged organizations to share employee experiences, remote work strategies and glimpses into their unique cultures. Had we primarily focused on outputs, we would have continued pushing planned features that were no longer relevant. What truly matters is impact: the value you create and the outcomes you achieve.
FireHydrant’s incident management platform is designed to help teams resolve and mitigate incidents quickly.
How does focusing on outcomes benefit teams as well as their customers?
Outcome-driven product development focuses on solving customer problems in the best way possible, instead of trying to force a specific output to work for customers. By focusing on outcomes, product teams have the room to develop solutions creatively, giving the entire team space to make an impact through their individual skills.
Focusing on outcome rather than output saved us four weeks of engineering time.”
We were planning to revamp the entire onboarding flow to improve customer experience and drive users through the product but instead determined that rewriting documentation and embedding it into our onboarding flow would be a better use of our time and improve the customer experience more keenly. Focusing on outcome rather than output saved us four weeks of engineering time.
