customer outcome

Customer Outcome: How to Define the Result Your Customer Wants | EVUNN


PROBLEM: I understand the problem, but I don't fully understand what it's like to experience it.

To find a profitable problem to solve, you must understand what it is like to experience the problem

STEP 3: DEVELOPING EMPATHY

Yes. I would make Step 3 a clear transition from “Does my solution fit the problem?” to “What does the customer actually want to achieve?”

I would also make sure it doesn’t duplicate the Transformation Roadmap in Step 4. Step 3 defines the destination; Step 4 maps the journey to that destination.

Step 3 — Define The Customer Outcome

The Problem We’re Solving

“I know the problem I want to solve, but I’m not clear on the result my customer actually wants.”

In Step 2, you tested whether your Most Promising Solution actually addresses the customer’s problem.

Now you need to go one level deeper.

A customer doesn’t usually pay simply because they have a problem.

They pay because they want to change something about their situation.

They want to:

  • achieve something

  • become something

  • stop something

  • improve something

  • save something

  • gain something

  • move from one situation to another

For example:

“I don’t know how to market my consulting business.”

is a problem.

But:

“I want a predictable way to attract qualified consulting clients.”

is closer to the outcome.

That distinction matters because your offer shouldn’t simply promise to solve a problem.

It should help the customer understand:

“What will be different for me if this works?”


The EVUNN Mindset Shift

From “What Problem Do I Solve?” → “What Result Does The Customer Want?”

Experts often describe their businesses around the problem they solve:

“I help businesses with marketing.”

“I help professionals with leadership.”

“I help founders with strategy.”

But customers don’t buy problems being solved in the abstract.

They want a meaningful change in their situation.

So instead of asking:

“What problem does my solution solve?”

ask:

“What does the customer want to be able to do, achieve or experience after this problem is solved?”

Your expertise describes what you can do.

The customer outcome describes what they want to accomplish.


What Is A Customer Outcome?

A customer outcome is the meaningful result the customer wants to achieve as a consequence of solving the problem.

It should be more specific than:

“Improve their business.”

And more meaningful than:

“Complete six coaching sessions.”

The first is too vague.

The second describes your delivery, not the customer’s outcome.

A useful outcome describes the customer’s desired change.

Think:

Current Situation → Desired Situation

For example:

Current:
“I rely mostly on referrals and don’t know where my next clients will come from.”

Desired:
“I have a reliable way to generate qualified leads every month.”

That desired state becomes the destination your solution and eventual offer are designed to help the customer reach.


Your EVUNN Action

Define The Customer’s Desired Outcome

Start with the validated problem and your Problem–Solution Fit work from Step 2.

Then answer:

1. What does the customer want to change?

What would they like to be different?

2. What are they trying to achieve?

What result are they actively pursuing?

3. What would success look like to them?

If the problem were meaningfully solved, what would they see happening?

4. What would they be able to do that they cannot do now?

Look for changes in capability, confidence, behaviour or circumstances.

5. What would improve in their situation?

Identify the meaningful difference between their current and desired state.

6. Why does this outcome matter to them?

Go beyond the surface-level result.

Ask:

“Why is this important?”

Then ask again:

“Why does that matter?”

This helps you uncover the deeper outcome behind the obvious one.

7. How will they know they’ve achieved it?

Define observable indicators of success.

Avoid vague outcomes such as:

“Feel better.”

Instead, look for evidence that something has actually changed.


Separate The Outcome From Your Solution

This is one of the most important exercises in this step.

Your customer outcome should not be your method.

For example:

“Complete my 12-week coaching programme.”

That’s your delivery mechanism.

“Learn my marketing framework.”

That’s an activity/feature.

“Attend six strategy sessions.”

That’s your service.

Instead:

“Consistently generate qualified leads without relying entirely on referrals.”

That’s closer to a customer outcome.

The distinction is:

Your solution is what you provide.

The customer outcome is what they want to achieve.


Build Your Outcome Statement

Use this structure:

From:

[Customer’s current situation]

To:

[Customer’s desired situation]

So That:

[Why the outcome matters]

For example:

From: Struggling to consistently attract qualified clients
To: Having a predictable way to generate qualified leads
So That: They can grow their business without constantly worrying about where the next client will come from.


Your Outcome Hierarchy

Don’t stop at the first outcome you identify.

Work through three levels:

Level 1 — Functional Outcome

What do they want to accomplish?

Example:

Generate more qualified leads.

Level 2 — Practical/Business Outcome

What does that enable them to do?

Build a more predictable client acquisition process.

Level 3 — Deeper Outcome

Why does that matter?

Grow the business with greater confidence and less uncertainty.

You don’t necessarily need to promise the deepest outcome in your offer.

The exercise is to understand what the customer is really trying to change.


Your Step 3 Deliverable

By the end of this step, you should have:

Customer Outcome Statement

Current Situation:


Desired Situation:


Functional Outcome:


Business/Practical Outcome:


Why It Matters:


Evidence of Success:


Your Phase 2 Master Offer Blueprint now becomes:

Validated Problem

Most Promising Solution

Problem–Solution Fit

Customer Outcome

This gives you the destination your offer needs to help the customer reach.


🔓 EVUNN Execution Toolkit

Customer Outcome Builder

Turn the problem you’ve validated and the solution you’ve explored into a clearly defined customer outcome.

The EVUNN Customer Outcome Builder helps you distinguish the customer’s desired result from your method, service or product—and define what meaningful success looks like.

→ Unlock The Toolkit

One Payment. All Stage 1 Toolkits. Yours For Life.

No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute.

→ Unlock All Stage 1 Execution Toolkits


What Should I Learn Next?

You now know where the customer wants to get to.

But knowing the destination isn’t enough.

You need to understand how the customer gets there.

What has to change first?

What obstacles must they overcome?

What milestones must they reach?

What does the customer need to do—and what does your solution need to help them do?

That’s the next step.

Step 4 — Map The Transformation

The question we’re now trying to answer:

“How does my customer move from their current situation to the outcome they want?”

This becomes the foundation for designing the actual transformation your offer will deliver.

To understand their experience, use Book 3. Title: Practical Empathy

Practical empathy

 

Author: Indi Young

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook) 

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy at the Bookshop

 

The Big Idea from Practical Empathy 

Empathy helps you move beyond assumptions and develop a deeper understanding of how people experience problems, situations, what they do, and what matters to them.

For an expert, this is a critical shift. Your expertise tells you what you think the problem is. Empathy helps you understand the problem from their perspective.


 

What Does this Book Help you Achieve?

Practical Empathy helps you:

  • Listen without immediately interpreting

  • Understand people’s experiences more deeply

  • Separate what people actually say from your assumptions

  • Make sense of what you hear

  • Identify patterns across people’s experiences

  • Use those insights to improve what you create

The goal isn’t to become better at selling.

It’s to become better at understanding.


 

Should I Read it Now?

YES.

You’ve already explored:

Step 1: What problems might exist?

Step 2: Why might people want to solve them?

Now you need to understand: What is this experience actually like for the person living through it?


 

Which Chapters Matter Most for me Now?

Chapter 2: Empathy Brings Balance (Essential)

Understand what empathy actually means and why it matters when making decisions about customers.

Chapter 3: Put Empathy to Work (Essential)

Learn how empathy can become part of how you investigate and understand problems.

Chapter 4: A New Way to Listen (Essential)

This is one of the most important chapters for this stage.

Learn to listen to someone’s experience without immediately jumping to solutions, advice or conclusions.

Chapter 5: Make Sense of What You Heard (Essential)

Find out how to process and deepen your understanding of what people tell you.

Chapter 6: Apply Empathy to What You Create (Essential)

Understand how patterns in people’s experiences can influence what you eventually create.

Chapter 1: Business Is Out of Balance (Read this chapter for context only)

It explains why relying only on numbers and analytical thinking can leave important parts of the customer experience invisible.

Skip Chapters 7–9 for now

They focus more heavily on applying empathy within workplaces and organizations.

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial | Buy at the Bookshop


 

Your Step 3 Outcome

By the end of this step, you should have:

  • A deeper understanding of the experience behind each problem  of  the 3 problems generated in step 1

  • A clearer distinction between what you know and what you’re assuming

  • Initial insight into what people think, feel and do

  • A better understanding of their frustrations and desired outcomes

  • A list of questions you still need to investigate with real people

Notice what hasn’t happened yet:

You haven’t validated the problems yet. That’s intentional.

You’ve developed empathy, but empathy based on your own reflection is still not enough.

The next step takes you deeper.


 

🔒 Ready to Put Empathy into Practice?

Reading about empathy is not the same as practising it.

The EVUNN Customer Empathy Toolkit gives you a structured way to examine the problem from the customer’s perspective and separate evidence from assumptions.

 

One Payment. For All EVUNN Stage 1 toolkits.

What Should I Learn Next?

You now have a better understanding of the customer’s experience.

But there’s another question:

What are they actually trying to accomplish?

A customer may describe a problem, but the problem itself isn’t always the real objective.

They may be trying to make progress toward something bigger.

Step 4: Jobs-to-Be-Done

You’ll move from: Understanding their experience to understanding the progress they’re actually trying to make.

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