This isn't a simple question; it's the sign of a hidden problem. Your dashboards show green, but your business results are flat or declining. Why? Because you're tracking software symptoms instead of business impact.

The dangerous truth is, you can have a "healthy" product that's bleeding your business dry.

This isn't just a theory; it’s a trap many companies fall into. They see high adoption and usage metrics and assume the software is working. But for their users, the software isn't a solution—it's a requirement. Users are forced to fight with a clunky workflow just to do their job. This high usage masks a crucial lack of value.

• Software Symptoms: 90% daily active users, 45-minute average session times, and a 95% feature adoption rate. Looks great.
• Business Reality: 35% annual churn, minimal expansion revenue, and increasing support tickets. Looks terrible.

The real cause: Customers weren't getting their work done faster. They were just spending 45 minutes a day fighting with the tool. The high usage was a symptom of a broken workflow, not a sign of value.

The problem starts with a fundamental disconnect between two parties: the developers who build the software and the people who have to use it.

• Developer Thinking: "We've built all the functions. Users can now input data, assign tasks, and generate reports. The software works."
• User Thinking: "I need my project to be finished on time, under budget, with zero errors."

The software is perfectly designed for the developer's mindset, but it completely ignores the user’s ultimate goal. This misalignment creates friction that costs you money. It's the difference between a tool that "has a feature" and a tool that enables a result.

• Redefine Success Metrics: Stop asking "How many people use our software?" Start asking "What business results are our users achieving?" and "Would they pay more because of the value we delivered?"
• Map Functions to Outcomes: For every major feature, ask yourself:
• Intended Business Outcome: What result should this enableUser Mental Model: How do users actually think about this problem?Success Measurement: How will we know it's truly working
• Find the Early Warning Indicators: Look beyond simple usage metrics.

• Track task completion efficiency, not just completion. Are users getting faster?Monitor workflow completion rates, not just usage rates. Are they finishing the process, or giving up halfway?Find the workarounds—those shadow processes users create with spreadsheets and old tools—that tell you where your software is failing.

Most consultants improve symptoms because they’re easy to measure. We focus on business impact because that's what justifies your investment. We align software function with business goals by understanding both the user's mindset and the business's measurable requirements.

The difference? After our work, if your business results don't improve, you'll know for a fact that software wasn't the limiting factor.

For SaaS:

Monthly churn rate × average customer LTV = your monthly cost of poor value delivery.

For Internal Software:

Team hours spent on workarounds × hourly cost = your monthly productivity loss.

If these numbers are significant, your software isn't performing—regardless of what your dashboards say.

The choice is yours: keep optimizing symptoms that don’t drive results, or fix the alignment gaps that are preventing business impact.