Intangibles Inspire Action. Tangibles Build Trust.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those. In fact, I believe in every one of them. I’ve seen how they can rally teams and move change forward. But I’ve also seen what happens when those are the only benefits listed when there’s nothing to point to that shows how those ideas will translate into something measurable. When that’s the case, it becomes harder to defend the project when scrutiny inevitably comes. And it always comes.

Sometimes it’s the CFO asking whether this initiative really drives financial value. Sometimes it’s a steering committee member pressing for a clear result. Sometimes it’s just a portfolio review where tough choices have to be made. And if all we have are directional goals with no tangible indicators? The project’s value becomes a story we have to keep re-telling. That’s not how a PMO builds trust. That’s how it gets stuck justifying decisions after the fact when it’s already too late to influence them.

Tangible vs. Intangible: The Distinction That Matters in Governance

One of the biggest misunderstandings I see in business case conversations is the idea that all benefits should be measurable in dollars. That’s not realistic and frankly, not helpful.

Because some of the most important reasons for doing a project are intangible. They speak to things like engagement, customer trust, or how we want the organization to work. But as PMO leaders, we still need to ask: "How do we talk about those benefits in a way that holds up when decisions get hard?"

So when I’m coaching teams on benefit articulation, I don’t start with definitions. I start with business impact. I ask:

• “Which part of the organization will be different because of this?” 

• “What decision or behaviour are we trying to shift?” 

• “Will this change how we spend money, time, or effort?”

If the answer points to something we can observe or track, we’re in tangible territory. If it’s more about how people feel, perceive, or interact, it’s likely intangible.

Here’s how I often explain the distinction in portfolio conversations:

• Tangible benefits influence how we fund, prioritize, and report. They have operational or financial implications—think cycle time improvements, reduced manual work, cost avoidance, capacity gains. 

• Intangible benefits shape adoption, motivation, and alignment. They make people want to engage with change—but they don’t always come with clear indicators.

Neither is more important than the other. But they serve different purposes. Tangible benefits help you manage accountability. Intangible benefits help you build momentum. When business cases blur those lines, when everything is phrased in vague ambition, it becomes harder to govern the portfolio with confidence. Because then you’re comparing inspiration instead of outcomes.

The Risk of an Intangible-Heavy Portfolio

When a portfolio leans too heavily on intangible benefits, you start to feel it not right away, but over time. The first signs show up during prioritization. You’ll hear comments like, “These all sound important, but I’m not sure what to fund first.” When benefits lack clear markers, decision-making becomes political rather than evidence-based.

Later in the delivery cycle, ambiguity creeps into reporting. Status updates turn into stories instead of signals. Sponsors feel uneasy, unsure whether progress is meaningful or just movement.

And post-delivery? That’s when the scramble begins. Teams rush to attach KPIs to outcomes they never defined. The PMO is pulled into a reactive role, helping projects justify their worth when they should have been tracking it all along. This isn’t a failure of intention. It’s a gap in translation. And as PMO leaders, it’s on us to close that gap not by rejecting intangible benefits, but by helping teams turn aspirations into actionable outcomes.

Coaching Teams to Reframe the Benefits They Present

In my experience, the best time to course-correct vague benefits is upstream during the intake or business case phase. When I see a benefit like “Improve collaboration,” I don’t dismiss it. I sit down with the team and ask:

It’s not about turning every idea into a financial metric. It’s about finding the operational anchor that makes the benefit real. Often, this conversation reveals something we can monitor: turnaround time, escalation frequency, meeting volume, handoff errors. From there, we can help the team strengthen their case with a tangible layer without discarding the vision that motivated the project in the first place.