Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes

Last week’s Personal Democracy Forum in New York City featured many smart minds focused on the ways technology can be harnessed to “fix” politics.  The presentations were fascinating and thought-provoking and the attendees smart, interesting, passionate people.

I was tickled to be invited to speak.  I gave a presentation on measuring advocacy – an elusive and difficult task.  I’ve posted my presentation slides on the blog, and this week’s Three Things offers up the core of the approach I recommend: focus on inputs, outputs, and outcomes.

1. Inputs - these are the things we put into an advocacy campaign.  Emails sent, tweets tweeted, Facebook posts made, social media interactions, coordinated actions in coalition with other organizations or individuals, etc.  Inputs might be best understood as those things we control – these are the things we do. Inputs are also the easiest things to measure, so they’re among the most commonly measured things.

2. Outputs - these are the immediate results of all of those inputs: Volunteers recruited, petition signatures gathered, email addresses added to the list, Twitter followers, “Likes” on Facebook, emails or calls to legislators, etc.  Outputs are the meat of most advocacy campaigns.  Outputs are the results that are relatively easily measured and easily reported.  Outputs have become the bread and butter of the advocacy world, and are generally among the metrics studiously measured by sophisticated advocacy organizations.

3. Outcomes – these represent the finish line, the win or the loss, and the reason for bothering with all of those inputs and outputs.  Did the legislation pass/fail? Did key decision-makers change their minds? Did the campaign change the world in its intended ways?

As I discussed in my presentation. outputs at the most important level are impossible to measure in ways that trace directly back to any campaign.  Maybe it was all those calls to the Hill that made the difference, or maybe it was a single call to the staffer writing that section of the budget.  The process of policy making  is complex and opaque, and it’s not possible to know exactly what combination of factors led to the outcome.

However, the best advocacy campaigns have a strategy that reflects a solid political theory of change and make decisions about inputs and important outputs with that strategy always at the fore.  It’s critical to measure progress along that theory of change, test it for validity, review, decide, and repeat.  Without taking measurement beyond easily quantifiable input and outputs to frustrating difficult to quantify outputs, decisions about investments of resources – time and dollars – into advocacy activities are impossible to make in an informed way.

So, be honest: if you ponder the metrics you reported on your last advocacy campaign, how many were inputs, how many were outputs, and did you get around to taking a good hard look at outcomes?  Can you make a strong case that your advocacy efforts are connected to making the change you’re fighting for?

Let us know (and, as always, we’re here to help you figure it out if you need us).

-Shayna

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