Result / Outcome
What the company wants in the world. Every design starts here, before any agent.
In one sentence
What the company actually wants in the world: revenue, satisfied customers, mitigated risk. Every Cognitive Enterprise design starts with the outcome and derives goals, agents, and metrics from it. Never the other way around.
Before
What the company wants in the world
What it does
Declared outcome
After
Goals, agents, and metrics derived from it
Example
A bad outcome would be "generate 4,000 letters." The real outcome is "the sponsor renews the child sponsorship because they feel they are following the life of a real child."
Changing the outcome changes everything downstream: if the goal were volume, a generic letter would pass. Because the goal is connection, factual fidelity and tone became eval criteria.
In practice
- Write it in one sentence, with an owner and date. If it needs a paragraph, it is not clear yet.
- Test: what decision would you make differently if the outcome were different? If none, it is not guiding anything.
- Review it every quarter. An outdated outcome is worse than no outcome.
How to make it tangible
A sentence written at the top of the process document, with an owner, stating what the company wants to happen in the world. A volume target does not count.
Translated from Portuguese with AI assistance.