Output is visible
Features are easy to count. That makes them attractive as targets, even when customers do not adopt them.
A product team can look busy while customer behaviour stands still. Switch from shipping more features to moving a metric and watch what changes.
Team mandate
Ship the roadmap: 8 features by quarter end.
Features are easy to count. That makes them attractive as targets, even when customers do not adopt them.
When the mandate changes, the team cuts vague ideas, runs smaller bets, and keeps only work tied to a customer behaviour.
The outcome mode ships fewer things, but the shipped work is selected for impact. The gauge finally moves.
If a roadmap review mostly asks, “Did it ship?”, the system is probably optimising output. Add the second question: “What customer behaviour changed?”
Strong product teams still ship. They just treat shipping as the start of learning, not the definition of progress.