A desired business or user outcome
An outcome is a measurable change in the behaviour of users or customers that drives business results. It sits between the work a team ships and the value the business wants, and it is the level at which a product team can be both ambitious and honest. The team cannot guarantee revenue and it should not be praised merely for shipping, so it commits to the behaviour change in between, which it can influence and observe.
The idea has roots in the logic models long used in programme evaluation, where inputs lead to outputs, outputs to outcomes, and outcomes to impact. Product management borrowed the chain and made the middle link its centre of gravity. Josh Seiden gave the field its working definition in Outcomes Over Output (2019): "an outcome is a change in human behaviour that drives business results." The constraintConstraintStrategyA limit, requirement, or ceiling the product must respect, whether a self-imposed principle or an externally imposed boundaryView reference → in that sentence is doing the work. A featureFeatureProduct SpecificationA product capability or featureView reference → shipped is an output; users saying they like it is a sentiment; a measured shift in what they actually do is an outcome.
Seiden paired the definition with three questions a team uses to find one: which user behaviours drive the business result, how do we get people to do more of those behaviours, and how do we know we are right. The framing built on the outcome-oriented thinking in his and Jeff Gothelf's Lean UX (2013), and it aligns with Marty Cagan's argument that empowered teams should be handed problems to solve and outcomes to achieve, not features to build. The debate that followed was about measurability. Critics noted that "behaviour change" can be slippery, so the discipline tightened: a usable outcome names the specific behaviour, the direction of change, and the metricMetricStrategyA unified metric that measures progress, health, or behaviour across the productView reference → that detects it, before any solutionSolutionDiscoveryA proposed approach to address an opportunityView reference → is proposed.
A B2B analytics product wants to grow expansion revenue. Revenue is the business result, too far from the team's hands to be a daily target. So the team names the outcome one layer up: more accounts add a second team to their workspace within 30 days of signing up. That is a behaviour, it is measurable, and the team has plausible ways to influence it.
The outcome reframes the roadmapRoadmapProduct SpecificationA strategic plan of features and milestonesView reference →. The team stops asking "what should we build?" and asks "what would make a first team invite a second?" Candidate answers (a shareable dashboardDashboardData & AnalyticsAn analytics dashboardView reference →, an invite prompt at the moment of insightInsightUser ResearchA synthesised finding from researchView reference →, role-based permissions) become bets against the outcome, each testable. Six weeks in, second-team adoption moves from 12% to 19% of new accounts. The team has not booked the expansion revenue yet, and they can already prove the behaviour they believed precedes it is shifting in the right direction.
In the Unified Product Graph, outcomeoutcome_measured_by_metricoutcome_tracked_by_metric, and it exports across region boundaries via outcome_delivered_by_featureoutcome_reveals_opportunityoutcome
Worked example: Trellis
The outcome Trellis is built around: a director describes how the team works, the agent builds and maintains the internal tool, and the team keeps relying on it as processes change. The key resultKey ResultStrategyA measurable result tied to an objectiveView reference → that tracks progress toward this outcome is week-1 workspace activation, and the strategic pillarStrategic PillarStrategyA foundational principle that guides decisionsView reference → that makes the outcome reachable is Trust.
Some evidence A few data points
MeasurementNumbers plus qualitative signal.
Type-specific fields on BaseNode
timelinestringTarget timeframe (e.g. "Q2 2026", "12 months")
ownerstringAccountable person or team. Promote to a `node_owned_by_person` edge if ownership must be queryable.
success_criteriastringWhat "achieved" looks like, concretely. Pairs with `measurement_method`. @example "30-day retention above 40% for new signups"
measurement_methodenumAssessment approach. `quantitative` = metrics drive the call. `qualitative` = observation / interviews. `mixed` = both, weighted case-by-case.
current_statestringBaseline or latest read
evidence_summarystringEvidence gathered so far (quotes, metrics, studies)
confidenceassessmentConfidence this is the right outcome to pursue
idstringrequiredUnique identifier (UUID)
typeNodeTyperequiredDiscriminator for the entity type
titlestringrequiredDisplay name
descriptionstringOptional detailed description
statusstringLifecycle status
tagsstring[]Freeform tags for filtering
4 phases, initial: identified
20 edge types connected to this entity.
product_pursues_outcomeoutcome_measured_by_metricoutcome_reveals_opportunityoutcome_delivered_by_featureopportunity_pursues_outcomemarket_trend_influences_outcomestrategic_theme_delivers_outcomeinitiative_drives_outcomemetric_drives_outcomeoutcome_delivered_via_feature_areaacquisition_channel_drives_outcomevalue_proposition_delivers_outcomerevenue_stream_drives_outcomesuccess_milestone_validates_outcomemarketing_strategy_pursues_outcomehypothesis_targets_outcomeexperiment_run_measures_outcomepersona_pursues_outcomeassumption_concerns_outcomeobjective_advances_outcome6 frameworks use this entity type.