Knowledge MaxxingOutcome metric
An outcome metric measures the actual real-world change a system contributes to, such as improved health results, rather than just the volume of outputs it produced.
Prerequisite: Output metric
What matters
Outcome metrics are harder to measure than output metrics, since they require tracking effects beyond the system itself, but they're what actually reflect whether the system helps.
Example
For a health app, 'number of notifications sent' is an output metric, while 'improvement in users' measured health outcomes' is the outcome metric that matters more.
Common misconception
Outcome metrics are not simply a more detailed version of output metrics; they require tracking something genuinely different, downstream of what the system directly produces.
Recall question
Why are outcome metrics generally harder to measure than output metrics?