Overview
Business Outcomes are the high-level results your client expects from an implementation — the "why" behind the project. They typically surface during sales discovery calls and shape everything that follows: scope, prioritization, success metrics, and how you talk about value at go-live.
Glossa extracts outcomes automatically from sales discovery calls and source documents, tracks each outcome's status as the project progresses, and maps outcomes to the categories that deliver them. Outcomes live at the project level (accessible via Outcomes in the project navigation) alongside Requirements and Categories.
Key Concepts
What is a Business Outcome?
A Business Outcome is a measurable result the client wants from the implementation. Outcomes are broader than requirements — a single outcome typically requires multiple capabilities and many requirements to deliver.
Examples:
"Reduce time-to-quote from 5 days to under 24 hours"
"Give development officers a single view of donor engagement across channels"
"Cut manual data entry for the operations team by 50%"
What Makes Up an Outcome?
Each outcome in Glossa includes:
Outcome — Short, plain-language description of the desired result
Initial Value — The baseline value of the outcome (current state)
Goal Value — The target value of the outcome (desired state)
Status — Draft, Approved, or Deprioritized
Context — Additional background about why it matters and where it came from
How Outcomes Get Created
There are two ways outcomes enter a project:
Extracted from discovery sources — Upload a sales discovery call recording or transcript, sales notes, or discovery document, and Glossa identifies candidate outcomes automatically. Every extracted outcome is created in Draft status. Note that automatic outcome extraction only happens when the project status is Sales Discovery.
Created manually — Add an outcome by hand when you already know what the client is targeting.
The Outcomes Interface
Navigating to Outcomes
Click Outcomes in the project navigation. You'll see:
Outcomes table with all outcomes for the project
Map Categories to Outcomes button in the top right
New Outcome button in the top right
Outcomes Table
The table shows:
Outcome — Title of the outcome
Initial Value — Baseline value
Goal Value — Target value
Status — Draft, Approved, or Deprioritized
Viewing Outcome Context
Click the caret to the left of any outcome to expand its context. For automatically extracted outcomes, this shows the specific part of the source conversation where the outcome was discussed.
Editing an Outcome
Click the three dots to the right of any outcome, then Edit. From here you can update the outcome, initial value, goal value, status, or context.
Viewing Outcome History
Click the three dots to the right of any outcome, then View History. All changes to the outcome are displayed, including old value, new value, who made the change, and when.
Extracting Outcomes from Sales Discovery Conversations
How to Extract
Confirm your project is in Sales Discovery status (visible on the Dashboard; to change, click Edit Project from the More menu on the Dashboard)
Upload a sales discovery call recording, transcript, sales notes, or discovery document to the project (see Uploading Files)
Glossa processes the source and identifies candidate outcomes alongside requirements
Extracted outcomes appear in the Outcomes table with status Draft
What Glossa Extracts
From discovery sources, Glossa identifies:
The desired result the client described
Current-state pain points where mentioned
Quantitative targets when stated (e.g., "cut quote turnaround to under 24 hours")
The category from your Library that best fits the outcome
Mapping Outcomes to Categories
Outcomes describe what the client wants to achieve. Categories and capabilities describe how you'll deliver it. The mapping between them connects business goals to the actual scope of work.
How Mapping Works
When an outcome is added to a project, Glossa assesses all unmapped Categories to see which ones contribute to fulfilling that outcome. Glossa suggests matches automatically, and you confirm or adjust them in the Outcome Mapping view.
Opening the Outcome Mapping View
Click Map Categories to Outcomes from either the Outcomes tab or the Categories tab. The Outcome Mapping page shows every project category alongside its suggested outcome match.
At the top of the page, summary stats show:
Categories — Total project categories
Pending — Categories that still need a mapping decision
Matched — Categories with a confirmed outcome
Filter Tabs
Mappings are organized into tabs based on their state:
Needs Review — Glossa has a suggested match and is waiting for your decision
Unmatched — No outcome match was found, or the match was rejected
High Match — Strong AI-suggested matches
Resolved — Mappings you've confirmed (either matched to an outcome or intentionally left unmatched)
All — Every category, regardless of state
Reviewing a Mapping
Each row expands to show two side-by-side panels:
AI Suggested Outcome — The outcome Glossa believes the category contributes to, with the outcome name and context. If no candidate outcome exists, this panel shows "No suggestion."
Category Details — The category name and full description, so you can evaluate the match without leaving the page
From the expanded view, you can:
Manually Match the category to a different outcome
Change the mapping to select a different outcome for the category
Unmatch a mapping you've previously selected
Skip if no outcome applies (for example, internal setup work that doesn't ladder up to a client outcome)
Best Practices
Capturing Outcomes Well
Keep outcomes outcome-shaped. "Reduce manual data entry by 50%" is an outcome. "Build a Flow that auto-populates contact records" is a requirement. If it sounds like a deliverable, it probably belongs in Requirements.
Validate with the client. Move outcomes to Approved once the client has explicitly agreed.
Don't change outcomes recklessly. Approved and aligned outcomes should only change when the project's goals explicitly change. Defining and aligning outcomes is one of the strongest defenses against scope drift.
Using Outcomes Through Delivery
Use the category mapping. When a stakeholder asks "what are we doing for [outcome]?", the mapped categories and their requirements answer it directly.
Keep outcomes top of mind. When reviewing requirements, reference the associated outcome to make sure the requirement actually moves the needle on it.
Resolve every mapping. Aim to clear the Pending count before scope lock — every category should map to an outcome.
Review deprioritized outcomes at phase boundaries. Deprioritized outcomes are candidates for the next phase or change order.
Organizational Considerations
Outcomes are project-level — each project has its own set.
Categories referenced by outcomes come from the organization-level Library, so changes to a category name or description are reflected on outcomes that reference it.