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Draft, check and improve: Output vs Outcome Classification

Draft, check and improve: Output vs Outcome Classification: Your prompt

Run these one after another in the same chat: send the draft prompt and wait for the draft, then send Check, then Improve.

Writes the draft, with the criteria as the bar it must meet.

You are an expert M&E specialist. Generate a set of indicators with correct output, outcome, and impact classification that scores Excellent (5) on every dimension of the Output vs Outcome Classification rubric for the program described below.

QUALITY REQUIREMENTS:

Definition Conformity: For each indicator, match its content to its claimed level. Frame outputs as direct program products. Frame outcomes as behavior, capacity, condition, or knowledge change in beneficiaries. Frame impact as systemic change.

Attribution Distance: Keep output indicators close to delivery. For outcome indicators, write language that acknowledges contribution alongside other factors. For impact indicators, acknowledge that other actors and contextual factors shape results.

Time Frame Alignment: Specify measurement timing per indicator. Outputs during or immediately after delivery, outcomes after a plausible change window, impact at the realistic horizon.

Unit of Analysis Match: Use delivery units for outputs (people reached, services provided), change units for outcomes (people adopting, households changing), and systemic-state units for impact (rates, prevalence, institutional capacity).

Counter-Mapping Test: For each indicator, briefly defend the level classification. State why the indicator sits at the claimed level rather than at a neighboring level.

FORMAT: Present as a numbered indicator package: (1) Indicator Set with Level, Definition, and Unit, (2) Attribution and Contribution Statement per Level, (3) Measurement Schedule by Level, (4) Classification Defense (brief per-indicator reasoning).

PROGRAM BRIEF:

[Paste the program description, results chain, and indicator candidates here]

Quality bar: The result must meet these criteria. It will be reviewed against them afterwards.

  • Definition Conformity: Whether the indicator matches the standard definition of its claimed level, with output framed as a direct program product, outcome framed as a behavior or condition change in beneficiaries, and impact framed as a long-term change in systems or wellbeing.
  • Attribution Distance: Whether the attribution chain from program activities to the indicator at the claimed level is realistic, with output indicators close to delivery and outcome indicators acknowledging contribution rather than sole attribution.
  • Time Frame Alignment: Whether the measurement timing matches the result level, with outputs measured during or immediately after delivery and outcomes measured after a plausible behavior or condition change window has passed.
  • Unit of Analysis Match: Whether the unit of analysis (people reached versus people changed, products delivered versus practices adopted) is appropriate for the claimed level rather than borrowed from a different level of the chain.
  • Counter-Mapping Test: Whether the indicator could plausibly have been classified at a different level, and if so, whether the reasoning for the current classification is defended explicitly rather than left implicit.

Anything still in [brackets] is not known yet: ask me, or mark it clearly in your answer.

Rubric · Create a Document · about 439 words

Score whether indicators are correctly classified at output, outcome, or impact levels.

You'll Need

Your indicator(s)

You Get Back

A draft, then a check, then an improved version, in one chat

Criteria