29) Measurable Impact

Behind-the-scenes building Vambrace AI, a company on a mission to figure out its mission. Please pardon the stream-of-consciousness style. Subscribe to follow along or visit the site here:

(typos are to make sure you’re paying attention)

Introductory Remarks

Dear Vambracers —

In last week’s post, Problem Solving, I discussed a shift in thinking around my value to clients: really they’re paying me to “outsource” problems and the organizational cognitive-load associated with those problems. It was one of those “oh-duh” moments that feels super simple yet profound in how I think about building relationships and positioning my knowledge, etc. It’s yet another micro-eureka moment on the pathway to entrepreneurial and organizational legitimacy.

Measurable Impact

In today’s post, I wanted to explore the importance of measurable impact on my credibility, acquire to new customers, and as my ultimate north star.

Backdrop

I’ve been speaking with more mentor and mentor-type folks in the broader consulting and services space just to ask for general advice and pick their brains. A common topic of discussion is, “Okay, well you have one customer, how will you get another?” And that’s a vexing question that I’m also actively trying to solve. And ultimately the TL;DR is that, in order to establish credibility and justify cost, etc., it all comes down to demonstrating value generation in previous engagements.

What is measurable impact?

I’m not going to overcomplicate this. Within a business context, “measurable impact” really almost by definition means incremental earnings. Incremental earnings can obtain from a lift in revenues on the same cost structure or from cost savings that don’t impact revenue. So are you helping a company generate more money or saving a company money? There are probably a lot of little nuances that I would happily explore, but I really want to stick to not overcomplicating this.

Examples

Some quick examples:

• Instant estimates. Any compression to the customer purchase journey should theoretically drive an increase in conversion, which translates to more revenue. Within the context of a consumer commodity hard-services business, if you can implement pricing rules and other dynamic-like pricing that lets you deliver nearly-instant quotes—then that should drive conversion and generate marginal revenue. For example, if a company generates $1M in new customer revenue annually then a 10% boost in conversion should drive $100K in incremental revenue. More practically, (and $ aside) if a company has 100 visitors to the website and it typically converts 5 of those visitors to customers—and then a shorter time-to-estimate flow results in that company converting 10 visitors to customers per 100 visitors then that could theoretically double new-customer revenue (on average). Long story short here is just that: if site visitors can receive estimates and place orders quickly, that should boost conversion which boosts marginal revenue.

• Pricing analysis. This is a bit more ambiguous, but another area where value can accrue is through historical analysis of pricing information to see if there are opportunities for boost revenue. There’s a world where you can determine some perfect price for every specific customer that extracts the most value for the business while still keeping the customer. We use algorithmic pricing to approximate better pricing structures that allow for more economic value extraction. And so it’s possible to calculate marginal revenue from year-to-year with updated prices across the existing customer base to determine value.

Measurable impact in pricing

So, on my end as a service provider, being able to demonstrate measurable impact allows me to justify any price that I would charge customers. If I can reasonably defend a $500K lift in incremental earnings associated with my work, then charging $100K is actually a pretty great deal. And I think this is actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the job is getting the opportunity to dig into the nitty-gritty technology and operations status quo of established companies and figure out if and how to improve things.

Measurable impact in customer acquisition

Once I have a real established track record then I can use those case studies to convince potential new customers that I can do what I say I can do. We also have to account for softer forms of credibility here through word-of-mouth referrals and reference calls and stuff. But it’s also incumbent upon me to paint a compelling narrative of what the company could look like if I’m able to help, which also demonstrates sufficient knowledge of the business.

Measurable impact as north star

So, to tie a bow on this, measurable impact is the real north star for the company. If I’m able to general incremental value for the companies I work with (and create) then I firmly believe the rest will take care of itself. In the coming weeks, I’m going to do some more concrete goal-setting using the Harada Method, which I learned about via Shohei Ohtani. Basically it’s an 8×8 matrix system with one north star (measurable impact) and then 8 pillars to support that north star, and then 8 concrete actions and/or habits that I can build into my daily routines and rituals to support developing and promoting each pillar.

For me in 2026 (and beyond), my north star is going to be $100M in incremental earnings (for clients, or generated by my own companies, etc.). And then I’ll go through the process at some point of settling on my 8 pillars and then 8 habits for each pillar and then just going from there.

Looking Forward

Heading into the new year, I want to formalize some more structure and organizational rigor to what I’m doing here—and I think the Harada Method will help me accomplish that. And so this post is the soft-launch of that process.

Have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Luke