by Michael Pollard

1. Outcome OVER Output
And Why Should We Care?
Mike Pollard

2. “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

3. Hypothesis:
The main ingredient to team high
performance and empowered decision
making is a clear, measurable purpose
and outcome.

4. The Hack day story “Humans by their nature seek purpose.”
Dan Pink

5. 3. What part of the problem will be
fixed in your next release and how
does it connect to the vision?
2. How will you know if the idea to solve
the problem is a good idea? Is it
worth the investment?
1. What problem is this team working
on?
Mike’s ‘Potential for Team High Performance’
Test • An inspiring story on a real
customer issue created a call
to action
• Team understand the why.
• The team tell you the success
metrics.
• What they will be measuring.
• The team show you how they
have broken the problem
down to maximise learning

6. • Inspire the team with a real story
1. What problem is this team working on?
• The problem always comes first
• Get your team close to the problem
• Gather data and baseline

7. 2. How will you know if the idea to solve the problem
is a good idea? Is it worth the investment?
• Every idea you have must impact one or more of
your organisation’s datapoints
• Every one of these impacted datapoints must be
tracked
• Every one of these impacted datapoints must be
baselined before you start working on the idea

8. Bonus Questions
• How do you measure
a successful project /
initiative?
• How do you celebrate
when a project is
‘delivered’?
Delivered all the business case scope
on time = value and ROI
OR
We tracked the problem datapoints
after the release and found out that
they achieved the desired outcome

9. Tracking metrics that measure or influence output
Number of defects
Environment issues
Agile maturity
Automated test coverage
Team mood

10. Output is important but not as important as outcome
• Did we move the
needle on the outcome
datapoint?
• Is it trending where we
want it to go?
• Is our desired outcome
still possible?
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11. 3. What part of the problem will be fixed in your next
release and how does this connect to the vision?
• Use data to help you break down the problem?
• Ensure each sub problem/idea links to the overall outcome
success metric?

12. Prioritise and communicate: Apollo 13 example
“NASA didn’t worry about
anything other than saving the
crew. The lunar landing
objective was abandoned
within minutes of the initial
explosion. And everyone on
the gigantic NASA team
understood it.”
Geoff Loftus, Forbes
www.nasa.gov

13. Solve a problem: Apollo 13

14. The big picture outcome: Apollo 13
Problem
3 members of our team are in a broken module in space, struggling to navigate, get
power and stay alive.
Goal
Bring them back to earth - alive
Metrics
• Crew status = Alive
• Time
• Power levels
• oxygen levels
• Navigation trajectory
• Crew feedback
Success
• 3 crew members back on earth
• 3 crew members alive
Inspiring story
Clear baseline and
desired outcome

15. Sub-initiative: Apollo 13
Problem
CO2 filter problem - carbon dioxide levels rising putting the crew’s life at risk.
Goal
Get oxygen level up to sustain the crew.
Metrics (baseline)
Time, oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels. Gauge = 8, if gauge > 15 crew will blackout.
Success
Carbon dioxide level gauge < 12 and remains at <12 for the rest of the mission.
Oxygen levels > 60%
Crew life status = alive
Complete task in < 5 hours
Hypothesis 1
Round module to fit into square hole, will reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen level.
Large problem broken down
Success metric. A subset of vision metrics

16. •Scrum theory is founded on
empiricism. Knowledge comes
from experience and making
decisions based on what is
known.
A quick note about Scrum
•Two of the pillars in scrum are
inspection and adaptation

17. 1. Understand the problem you are solving
2. Baseline, define success and stop focusing all
your energy on measuring output
3. Break the problem down and be clear on how
each sub-problem contributes to the overall
outcome.
Summary
The main ingredient to team
high performance and
empowered decision making is
a clear, measurable purpose
and outcome.

18. Outcome OVER Output - and why should we care?
www.atlantive.com
Mike Pollard