Mik Kersten, author of Project to Product, discusses his new book Output to Outcome, which argues that organizations are stuck in an 'AI productivity paradox'—investing heavily in AI while still measuring output rather than business outcomes. He introduces Outcome Management as a systems-level leadership practice, along with three foundational models: the Product Operating Model, the Outcome Loop, and the Outcome Tree. Kersten explains why Agile and DevOps investments at the team level haven't delivered expected returns (the bottleneck is the operating model, not the team), describes the role of the 'outcome manager' as a hybrid product/engineering leader with AI fluency, and outlines seven organizational shifts needed to adapt. He also addresses societal concerns around AI scaling knowledge output, human agency, and wealth concentration.
