---
title: How to commit to an outcome and have it measured
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/decisions/outcomes
description: Say what you expect a decision to produce, and Tideswell measures it when the date arrives.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to commit to an outcome and have it measured



An **outcome** is what you expect a decision to produce, committed in advance and measured when
the time comes. It is what turns a decision log into a track record.

## Why commit in advance? [#why-commit-in-advance]

Because judging a decision afterwards is almost worthless. Everybody can construct a story in
which what happened is what they expected.

Writing down "this order should give us eight weeks of cover through the launch and sell 70% of
it by the end of October" before the order ships is a real test. Reading the result later is a
fact rather than a memory.

That is the whole discipline. It is uncomfortable, which is why it works.

## How do you attach one? [#how-do-you-attach-one]

From your own decision, attach an outcome to it. You can also detach one.

Attaching is limited to the person who wrote the decision, since a commitment somebody else made
on your behalf is not a commitment.

Outcomes attach to **purchase orders** today, which is why the track record is effectively a
record of purchasing calls.

## What gets measured? [#what-gets-measured]

The commitment, against what actually happened, when the date arrives. Tideswell does the
measuring on a schedule rather than waiting for somebody to remember.

The result is a **verdict**: **met**, **missed**, **pending**, **couldn't measure**, or
**cancelled**.

## What does "couldn't measure" mean? [#what-does-couldnt-measure-mean]

That the data needed to judge it was not there, so no verdict was possible.

It is deliberately not counted as a miss. A verdict nobody could compute says something about
your records rather than about the decision, and scoring it as a failure would make the track
record meaningless.

That is the same rule you meet everywhere in Tideswell: a blank means "could not read", and it
is never quietly turned into a zero.

## What is a hit rate? [#what-is-a-hit-rate]

Met divided by closed, shown on the track record.

When nothing could be judged it reads as a dash rather than 0%, for the reason above.

Read it alongside the count. A hit rate over four closed commitments is an anecdote, and one
over forty is a pattern.

## What can you group a track record by? [#what-can-you-group-a-track-record-by]

**Supplier**, **person** or **team**, showing how many commitments closed, how many were met,
missed or could not be measured, and the hit rate.

Each answers something different.

**By supplier** tells you whose orders keep working out, which is a different question from
who delivers on time, per <Ref to="purchasing/supplier-terms-and-delivery-record" />.

**By person** tells you whose calls to trust on a close decision. Use it gently: it is a
learning tool rather than a performance review, and the sample sizes are small.

**By team** rolls it up. Somebody who belongs to two departments counts in both rows, and the
screen says so rather than hiding it.

## Does a met outcome mean the decision caused it? [#does-a-met-outcome-mean-the-decision-caused-it]

No, and Tideswell will not say it did.

It reports what was decided and what was measured side by side and refuses to join them. A drop
that sold through in a warm October is not proof the buyer was right.

What it gives you is the pair of facts. The judgement is still yours, and having the pair is
what most brands have never had at all.

## Where do you read them all? [#where-do-you-read-them-all]

The **Track record** tab beside the decision log. See <Ref to="decisions/decision-log" />.