An outcome is the change in behavior or state that an output brings about — for example, a team actually working a new process rather than merely having been given the tool for it. Outcomes sit between outputs and benefits: they are the adoption and behavioral change that make a delivered thing consequential.
Outputs are produced; outcomes are the change those outputs are meant to create. A system that goes live is an output; people genuinely using it as intended is the outcome. Because outcomes depend on human adoption rather than delivery alone, they are where value most often stalls despite a "completed" project.
