mapping-impact-to-outcomeslisted

# Mapping Impact to Outcomes ## Overview The defining product failure is the **feature factory** — measuring output (features shipped) over outcomes (customer behavior changed that drives business results). This skill keeps every deliverable tied to a measurable outcome, and cuts the ones that aren't. ## When to use - A roadmap is becoming a list of features with no stated goals. - You need to decide which deliverables actually move a metric. - Setting OKRs or an outcome-based roadmap. ## Impact mapping (Adzic) A mind map from a measurable goal outward, four levels — each answering one question: 1. **Goal — Why?** The single, specific, **measurable** business objective at the root (e.g., "increase active players to 1M," not "improve engagement"). 2. **Actors — Who?** People who can produce or obstruct the effect. 3. **Impacts — How?** The **behavior changes** in actors that move the goal — **not features.** (The #1 mistake is writing features here.) Litmus: an impact must be an actor *doing something differently*, with **no product noun in it**; if it names a feature, it belongs in level 4. 4. **Deliverables — What?** Features/activities that *support* an impact. Every deliverable must trace up through an impact and actor to the goal. **Orphan deliverables get cut.** Each branch is a hypothesis ("if we ship this, this actor's behavior changes, which moves the goal") — deliver the smallest set for the highest-leverage impact, measure, then stop or pivot. ## Outcomes v