Kavir Kaycee | Product Manager, Startup Advisor, Writer

Inputs vs Outputs vs Outcomes

To define performance measures for yourself or your team, it helps to understand the difference between Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes.

Inputs

Inputs for a knowledge worker are almost always time and should never be measured for performance as long as it meets a minimum threshold.

Inputs, however, can be controlled to ensure that you are prioritizing well and dividing time among your major projects or responsibilities in an efficient way.

Outputs

Outputs are the deliverables that are created or the work product that is delivered to customers. For e.g. features shipped, code written, blogs published, models created, sales calls done.

Performance can be measured in outputs because it's in the hands of the individual.

Outcomes

Outcomes are the results from the outputs delivered. This is mostly out of the individual's control. for e.g. user metrics improvement, achieving sales targets, company revenue

OKRs usually focus on outcomes, however they aren't used for measuring performance but just aligning the individual and the team to the the org goal.