Check, check and check. For many of us, crossing something off a to-do list feels good — so good, we sometimes add things we’ve already done just to cross them off.
If you’re trapped in this output-driven mindset, you’re not alone, but while fulfilling tasks and finishing projects might seem efficient, it often leads to tunnel vision and short-term thinking. A perspective geared toward outcomes is much more important to sustainable success, especially when it comes to UX design.
Unlike an output-driven mindset, an outcome-driven mindset revolves around attaining desired results and generating value for customers, stakeholders and the company. Instead of merely crossing off to-dos, the outcome-driven mindset can produce solutions that appropriately address users’ needs.
OUTPUTS VERSUS OUTCOMES: AN EXAMPLE
- An output would be gaining 700 new subscribers for a newsletter, while an outcome would involve cultivating a loyal customer base and enhancing brand visibility.
- An output in UX design would be redesigning the user interface of a mobile app to make it more visually appealing, while the outcome would be enhanced user interaction and increased retention rates.
Recently, Built In sat down with UX designers to learn how they prioritize outcomes and how it’s led to more meaningful results.
Overhaul is a supply chain integrity solutions company that allows shippers to connect disparate sources of data all in a single unified view.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
An outcome-oriented mindset is crucial for UX designers. Understanding user goals and needs is essential to design towards the most desirable outcome. The UX design process supports an outcome-oriented product development process through iteration, validation cycles and continuous tracking of usability metrics.
The UX design process supports an outcome-oriented product development process through iteration, validation cycles and continuous tracking of usability metrics.”
In practice, however, limited resources or tight deadlines can make it challenging to achieve desired outcomes. Stakeholders might have business outcomes in mind that don't align with user outcomes. In such cases, UX designers must understand how user tasks and goals are affected. For example, transitioning users to a new process with additional tasks may ultimately achieve the same outcome for them but a better one for the business. Careful planning and mitigators can work against any additional pain points introduced.
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
We give our customers access to a mobile application that allows them to create shipments and assign tracking devices so that we can monitor their shipments in real time. This application started to cause problems due to an outdated technology stack and was difficult to manage by our internal support teams. We decided to rebuild the application from the ground up, which was risky as it could cause major disruption to our customers’ supply chain.
The project was kicked off with an in-depth analysis of the current application. We interviewed users and gathered metrics to create a SMART goal. Aside from making the app more manageable, we aimed to improve task completion rate and time on task for shipment creation. Rapid prototyping and multiple iterations led to a new application being beta-tested by customers. During a live test, a customer estimated the new app would make shipment creation two to three times faster.
Fulcrum GT is reimagining the end-to-end digital business framework of the global professional services market.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
To me, this means embarking on a design journey with specific end goals in sight, and having empathy for users’ needs and aligning them with business objectives. Every design decision is then made with a clear understanding of how it will impact both the user experience and the business’s bottom line.
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
In the development of functionality related to bill management, Fulcrum identified a set of key outcomes for both legal providers and their customers and then designed both the business process and the user experience around achieving those goals. It was clear that the goals of both sides might be in opposition to one another, so the solution needed to be designed to deliver the most favorable outcome for both sides while allowing for either to feel that they were serving their own needs as much as possible. By adopting an outcome-based approach, our team could make design decisions that fairly addressed each group’s specific goals, achieving the best possible outcome for everyone involved.
“By adopting an outcome-based approach, our team could make design decisions that fairly addressed each group’s specific goals.”
Adage is a web design and development firm that builds solutions for arts and nonprofit clients.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
Thinking about outcomes as designers forces us to expand our perspective on what good design means. By understanding both user needs and client objectives, we pair them to define outcomes at the start of a design sprint. This focuses our efforts on design that will support users and impact client objectives while requiring that these opposing forces work together.
“By understanding both user needs and client objectives, we pair them to define outcomes at the start of a design sprint.”
In practice, this often starts with an investment in user and stakeholder interviews, collaborative mapping sessions and an evaluation of our prototypes against outcomes.
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
By staying outcome-oriented, we ideate and design inside a feedback loop that requires us to confirm that our designs are not just visually exciting, but impact outcomes through user behavior in measurable ways. This can happen across many stages of a design project — most recently, we applied outcomes to an information architecture, establishing a scalable system for content through the lens of outcomes.
Grand Studio is a strategic design firm — home to talented thinkers and makers who collaborate around digital and operational design.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
An outcome-oriented mindset in UX design is thinking about the user needs we’re solving for and the impact a solution can have on users and the surrounding system. Great user experiences harmonize user needs, technology and services capabilities and business goals to provide a holistic offering. Harmonization is designed with the appropriate stakeholders representative of the system — with strengths in ambiguity and divergent ideation, design teams are best suited to facilitate these conversations and synthesize insights, concepts, prototypes and final solutions.
“Great user experiences harmonize user needs, technology and services capabilities and business goals to provide a holistic offering.”
In practice, teams need to be nimble to realign on user needs and pivot along the way because people are complex. The more we learn through the design process the more nuanced and focused solutions can become to delight users. Throughout a project, it’s important to reevaluate design direction given new learnings. This can take the form of personas, journey maps, jobs to be done or anything that helps a team shift between design details and high-level goals.
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
Recently, we worked on a project with a client inside a large corporation that tends to focus on building products before making updates based on learnings from being deployed in the real world. This method can take a lot of resources including vast amounts of money to potentially find out that a product doesn’t resonate with customers. Hence, the project was part of an organizational shift to center the customer at the core of large-scale initiatives, and it was our job to help guide the client team through this.
From the beginning, we focused on a problem statement directly addressing a customer need while incorporating the organization's goals. This statement served as our north star to come back to and evaluate as we learned new things. Plus, it was an essential tool to keep the client team focused on the customer before rashly jumping to solutions. Though it wasn’t easy to maintain this mindset — from working against an ingrained solution-first culture to realigning with a large client team at multiple points of the project — the final solutions were enhanced by the details we were able to incorporate.
Prosodica uses conversational analytics to humanize the way enterprises improve their business.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
In the realm of UX design, fostering an outcome-oriented mindset is essential for creating impactful and user-centric experiences. It revolves around prioritizing user needs above aesthetics or functionality, delving deep into understanding user goals and defining clear outcomes aligned with business objectives. This mindset thrives on iterative processes such as user testing and prototyping, allowing designers to adapt based on real-world interactions. Collaboration across disciplines enriches the design process, offering diverse perspectives and insights. In addition to collaboration, taking a holistic view of the user journey ensures consistency and coherence across touchpoints. Furthermore, using data-driven analytics and user metrics to inform designs empowers designers to prioritize features with the greatest impact.
“Using data-driven analytics and user metrics to inform designs empowers designers to prioritize features with the greatest impact.”
Ultimately, an outcome-oriented mindset is about delivering tangible value and transforming technology interaction positively.
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
Embracing an outcome-oriented mindset has revolutionized my approach to work, consistently yielding profound outcomes. Shifting from focusing on outputs to prioritizing actual results, I work to set clear objectives and align my efforts accordingly so I can measure the impact of my work.
For example, I facilitated a strategy workshop for a team project aimed at enhancing our application. With the outcome-oriented mindset at the forefront of my mind, I crafted the workshop visualizing the team’s desired outcome for the project and created exercises that would yield results getting us closer to that vision. The workshop was a success because the team gained clarity on the project’s purpose and business objectives, yielding actionable next steps. I believe we accomplished this because the foundation of the workshop was heavily focused on the outcome and desired goal. Prioritizing outcomes cultivates innovation and promotes continuous learning, accountability and progress, inspiring a future where contributions make a meaningful difference.
What does an “outcome-oriented” mindset mean to you, as applied to UX design? What does this look like in practice?
As an organization, Evidation’s approach to UX design embodies an outcome-oriented mindset, deeply ingrained in our workflow. We prioritize aligning design efforts with user needs and business objectives. This starts with collaborative sessions with stakeholders to define the problem. We then delve into comprehensive user research, understanding every aspect of their unmet needs.
Once we've honed in on a clear problem statement, we articulate how addressing these user needs contributes to business goals. This step solidifies stakeholder buy-in and underscores UX design value.
With alignment on outcomes established, we craft solutions to deliver on these objectives. Every design decision is made with these outcomes in mind, ensuring solutions meet user needs and drive tangible results.
We continuously iterate based on user feedback, measuring success against predefined outcomes. This iterative process allows us to stay adaptive and effective in solving problems that matter most to users and the business. Being outcome-oriented is not just a mindset — it's the cornerstone of our UX design approach.
“Being outcome-oriented is not just a mindset — it’s the cornerstone of our UX design approach.”
How has an outcome-oriented mindset led to more meaningful outcomes?
A great example of how our team embraces an outcome-oriented mindset is our home screen redesign project. We started with in-depth user research to uncover any pain points our existing members had with the current app experience. In parallel, the team also looked through analytics to identify any major drop-offs and success metrics from the business perspective. With desired outcomes aligned across the team — improving 60-day retention and creating a more personalized, delightful and intuitive home screen — we focused on creating solutions that could deliver these outcomes.
Throughout the redesign process, we made sure to prototype iteratively based on user feedback and prioritized issues that enabled us to deliver the desired outcomes. Close collaboration with cross-functional partners was also integral to ensure the final solution was implemented seamlessly. Additionally, we considered long-term impact, anticipating future user needs and designing a scalable solution. This outcome-oriented approach improved user engagement and retention, demonstrating the practical application of this mindset in creating meaningful outcomes.
