How to define project success using outputs, outcomes and success criteria

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You’ve delivered the project. The whole thing ran on time, the report is printed and the budget just about held up. Then someone asks: “So what difference did it make?”

If that question makes you pause, you’re not alone. More than 1 in 12 jobs in the UK are now project-related, according to the Association for Project Management. So many of us run projects, even without “Project Manager” in our job title. And funders, trustees and senior leaders increasingly want to know what changed, not just what was delivered. How did your project impact the mission of your organisation? How did it help the people and communities you serve?

A good answer starts long before the project ends. It starts at the scoping stage, when you decide what success looks like and how you’ll measure it. That means being clear about three things: your outputs, your outcomes and your success criteria.

These terms often blur together, or mean different things in different teams. How to separate them is one of the questions participants ask most often on our Project Management training. Using examples from the non-profit, this blog explains each one, shows how they fit together, and why getting them clear early makes such a difference.

Outputs and outcomes: short-term and long-term change

Let’s begin with a quick review of the terminology. It sounds simple, but it’s easy to mix up, especially when your working day is filled with endless project jargon that sometimes seems better suited to a rugby pitch… (Scrum, anyone?)

All projects exist to create results, and results are about what has changed because of the project.

Outputs are your immediate results. Once your project is delivered, something exists that didn’t before: a new product, event, service or resource. That’s a small, short-term change.

Outcomes are your long-term results. They’re the real reason for running the project. Outcomes are the improvements your project creates, or the benefits people experience because of it. To find yours, ask: “What will be going on in the world (or in this group) if we get this right?”

This bigger change is often the “why” behind your project. So your outcomes should link clearly to your organisation’s wider purpose.

Start with outcomes, not outputs

When you plan a project, you’re making a bet: that your chosen outputs will lead to your outcomes. That’s why it pays to start with outcomes, and keep them in mind throughout.

If you don’t, you risk delivering excellent outputs that don’t create the change you wanted. None of us can afford leaflets for leaflets’ sake, reports no one acts on, or events no one benefits from. Outputs are simply a means to an end.

Keeping outcomes front of mind also helps you check whether your outputs will be enough. You might need to adjust them, or add more, to reach the change you’re after.

For many teams, this means a real shift in thinking. We like outputs because we can control them. They’re tangible, and ticking them off feels good.

Outcomes are messier. They’re often harder to pin down and measure, and they usually depend on other people doing things differently. But they’re what really counts. Knowing what you’re aiming for also keeps you and your team motivated as the project goes on.

Success criteria: how you’ll measure change

You need a way to know whether you’ve achieved what you hoped for. That’s what success criteria do. They add enough detail to tell you clearly whether you’ve succeeded.

You can use them to monitor and evaluate your project, and they apply to both outputs and outcomes:

• Output success criteria measure the quality of your immediate output, the short-term change.
• Outcome success criteria measure the long-term change your project has produced.

Success criteria can take many forms, such as numerical targets, feedback comments or legal requirements. Each has pros and cons, so a mix often works best.

Agreeing your results at the start, during scoping, helps everyone on the project understand what you’re aiming for and why. You can manage expectations, track progress as you go, and measure success accurately when it’s time to evaluate.

Putting it into practice

With so many connected terms, it’s easy to get confused. So let’s put it all together with an example.

Say you work for a charity that helps people reduce their environmental footprint through what they buy. You’ve just received funding for a UK public awareness campaign, centred around Earth Day, to reduce single-use plastic.

Your output and outcome might look like this:

The output helps achieve the outcome. But right now, there’s no clear way to measure success. So let’s add some success criteria:

Now you have clear targets to come back to when the project is delivered. But remember to stay focused on outcomes, not outputs.

Sometimes it becomes clear that your outputs aren’t quite right for the change you want. That’s fine: you can adjust them. It’s much better to spot this at the scoping stage than two weeks before launch. That’s why it helps to agree your results early.

In this example, your team might decide social media alone won’t reach some age groups. So you add more outputs:

Here are a few more examples:

Some results don’t sit neatly in one column. Take attendance at the conference: is it an output or an outcome? A useful test is to ask: “What do I have control over?” You can organise the conference, book the speakers and promote the event. Those are your outputs. But you can’t make people come. Attendance depends on other people choosing to take part, so it sits with your outcomes. It’s also the first step towards the others: people attend, then go on to gain a better understanding and build new partnerships. If a result relies on someone else’s choices or actions, it’s likely to be an outcome.

Remember: a project isn’t just a list of things to do. It’s your way of making a difference. Set clear outputs, outcomes and success criteria from the start, and when someone asks “So what difference did it make?”, you’ll have your answer ready.

What’s next?

To build your project management skills, take a look at our Project Management Programme. As well as setting measurable results, you’ll learn how to write a project rationale, manage stakeholders and risks, create accurate project plans, and monitor and evaluate success.

Want your whole team to speak the same project language? We can also deliver in-house training, tailored to your organisation and the projects you run. Contact us online or call 074 3690 3103 to find out more.