Outcomes

Outcomes reflect the change in the external environment that we would like to achieve in the future. We cannot fully control outcomes because they are influenced by factors outside our control. However, making the right decisions today could help us achieve our desired outcomes in the future. What do outcomes look like? For USA.GOV an outcome may be more citizens gaining access to government services online, whereas for the City of NYC an outcome may be reducing inequalities between schools in the district.

Participants

Participants are knowledgeable crowds who know what works and can help decision-makers take action more productively. They can be stakeholders affected by a decision, authority figures whose approval is required to deliver change, or knowledge-holders with relevant expertise. 

Answers

Answers are contributed by the participants, and represent knowledge of potential changes to achieve an outcome. Answers can be communicated in various online and offline channels such as through a website, emails, text messages, roundtables, and phone calls. Answers are always in response to a question.

Highlights

Highlights are excerpts from a participant answer that reflect a proposed courses of action. Participants or admins create highlights, which can be a maximum of 200 characters in length. Highlights should emulate the answer’s language, although direct quotes are not necessary. We recommend that highlights additionally express “between the lines” meaning, as intended by the participant who wrote the answer.

Insights

An insight embodies what works; it is the “understanding of the true nature of something” (Merriam-Webster), which helps us realize what action might lead to the desired outcome. In a consulting project, an insight is based on one or more highlights and leads to a decision. Insights are not trivial, have broad implications, and often shed a different light on our reality.

Decisions

Decisions reflect changes in the way we currently do things. A decision should include reallocating resources, issuing regulations, changing methods, or reforming an organization’s structure. Each of these four elements helps us deliver the outcomes we would like to achieve. In a consulting project, a decision is based on an insight.

Impact

We measure the impact of a consulting project by the change in the decisions made, and we ask for advice in order to make better decisions. An impactful project is one in which at least one of the insights changed decisions. A project without an impact is a project in which the insights helped to support the decisions, but never changed anything.