# Goal or outputs: what success means > Why finished outputs aren't success, and how to write two-part success criteria: delivery and result. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: What a project is, and the one-page brief - Lesson 2/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/goal-or-outputs ## Picture 1 February **Alex Tutor:** Back to Klasna's physics launch, which you lead for Leo. Before planning anything, picture the morning of 1 February. Everyone reports in. **Danylo:** The landing page is done: fast, clean, works on phones. The diagnostic test is live too. **Vira:** The curriculum is done, every exam topic with practice problems. The tutors passed my review. **Leo:** Great. So how many learners? **Sofia:** We never agreed on a number. Everyone finished their part. **Alex Tutor:** That's the trap: **outputs** mistaken for the goal. Outputs are what the team makes: curriculum, tutor pool, test, page. The **goal** is a change in the world: learners book physics and actually study it. **Alex Tutor:** Every output can be finished while nobody books. Finished outputs say the team worked, not that the project did. > **Exercise:** Which of these describe the **goal** of the physics launch rather than an output? Choose all that apply. ## Two parts of success **Sofia:** So we write down the goal and forget the outputs? **Alex Tutor:** No, **success criteria** need two parts. **Delivery**: what is handed over, by when, for how much. Classes open on 1 February 2027, within the budget Leo approves, with the agreed scope. **Alex Tutor:** **Result**: what changes afterwards, in numbers, by a date. For example: 120 learners have booked a physics package by 28 February 2027, and three in four of them still attend in their fourth week. **Leo:** 120 is the number from my physics plan. Is that what other schools get? **Alex Tutor:** We don't know, and we won't pretend to. Both 120 and "three in four" are our plan's **assumptions**, not benchmarks. Label them so, and in March compare them with what happened. **Vira:** The second number matters more to me. A booking can be bought with an ad; a learner still there in week four stayed because the lessons work. > **Exercise:** Match each line from a draft of the physics success criteria to what it is. **Alex Tutor:** Leo's 120 isn't a benchmark. Does that mean it shouldn't be written down? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a target like “120 learners booked by 28 February” should stay out of the success criteria until there is data from other schools. ## Keep the two parts apart **Danylo:** So if bookings come in low, it's my page's fault? **Alex Tutor:** Not by default. Delivery judges the team's work; the result judges the bet behind the project. A team can deliver perfectly and still learn the bet was wrong. That's information, not blame. **Leo:** And if we hit 120 bookings but open on 15 February? **Alex Tutor:** Then delivery failed and the result held, and both facts matter: two lost weeks in exam season hurt every learner. Kept apart, one part can't hide the other. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if the curriculum, tutor pool, test and page are all finished by 1 February and within budget, the physics launch has met its success criteria. **Alex Tutor:** Now the opposite case: delivery on time, result short. What does it tell you? > **Exercise:** Suppose everything opens on 1 February within budget, but by 28 February only 60 learners have booked. What does that tell you? ## From an output to a result **Sofia:** Danylo's test is an output. Can I still say what it should achieve? **Alex Tutor:** Yes. Ask what it should change for learners, find something you can count, set a target, and name the date you'll check. **Danylo:** The test shows parents their kid's level so they pick the right package. I could count how many test-takers then book. **Alex Tutor:** There you go: a share of February test-takers who book by 1 March. The target is an assumption until we have data, so label it. > **Exercise:** Put the steps in order to turn an output into a result criterion. ## Agree on it now **Leo:** So next time someone tells me something is done, what do I ask? **Alex Tutor:** "Done, and what changed?" And agree the criteria now, in October. Criteria written after the results are in always pass. **Sofia:** This sounds like outcomes over outputs. **Alex Tutor:** It is. The **Outcome-Based Product Roadmaps** course applies that idea to a whole roadmap; here we use it for one project with a fixed date. > **Exercise:** On 1 February Leo asks: "So how many learners?" Which success criterion, written in October, lets you answer him? **Alex Tutor:** One last question before you write them: when should they be agreed? > **Exercise:** When should the success criteria for the physics launch be agreed? ## Your turn: criteria Leo can sign **Leo:** Write me the success criteria for physics, both parts, so I can sign them this week. **Vira:** And say which numbers are guesses. I don't want my tutors judged on a number nobody checked. **Alex Tutor:** Delivery: date, budget, scope. Result: what you'll count, the target, the date you check. Mark the assumptions. **Sofia:** Two parts, numbers with dates, guesses labelled. > **Exercise:** Write the **two-part success criteria** for the physics launch (3–5 lines): the delivery part and the result part. Mark which numbers are assumptions. > **Key points** > > - **Outputs** are what the team makes (curriculum, tutor pool, test, page). The **goal** is a change in the world (learners book physics and keep studying). > - Finished outputs are not success. > - **Success criteria** have two parts: **delivery** (date, budget, scope) and **result** (what you count, the target, the date you check). > - Keep the parts apart: one must not hide the other. > - Targets without data are assumptions: 120 bookings by 28 February 2027 and three in four still attending in week four are the physics plan's own guesses, checked in March. > - Agree the criteria before the work starts. **Alex Tutor:** Next time these criteria go onto one page, next to scope, limits, assumptions and an owner: the one-page brief. - Previous lesson: [Project, operations or product work?](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/project-operations-or-product-work.md) - Next lesson: [The one-page brief](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/the-one-page-brief.md) --- Productovi Learning. 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