Measuring Outcomes & Research Impact

Proving biz impact
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When reviewing a Research Impact article by Carl J. Pearson, PHD I cam across his diagram in the citations that really resonated for me.

The inversion of “Locus of Control” and “Ease of Measurement” rows really nails what makes measuring the impact of the work so difficult.

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Any other Pearson fans in here? Curious if this chart resonates with anyone else?

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SUUUPER interesting considering the climate of trying to maximize impact with outcomes. Its likeeee, do we measure what matters or what’s actually measurable?

Thinking Think GIF

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Love this @ericZ!

I’d argue the biggest challenge that product and design faces is thinking only in outcomes. The reality is the business operates on results, so if teams stay focused only on creawting outcomes, they’ll come up short of expectations.

This is our focus with Glare.

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This little chart is super revealing. The question is, how do you keep making getting to outcomes easier? Is that even possible?

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As I look at this again, that 4th column changes things:

  1. Importance to business under-values execution. It may be ‘lower’ than Influence, but you can’t influence without the thing. Interdependence.
  2. It’s extremely easy to measure Results in Lead. What’s difficult is getting the influence to have access. Results is just accounting, and that’s what the world runs on.
  3. Our conversations have really centered on Outcomes up to now, but this elevates Results as the pinnacle. Is this a language shift?
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