In countless discussions over the past ten years with educators considering the adoption of the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric™, the most common question asked is, "Can you prove that applying the QM Rubric to an online course improves outcomes--retention, grades, learner satisfaction?" This question seems necessary, reasonable, and even unavoidable, but it greatly oversimplifies the task of demonstrating the efficacy of the Rubric. There are other impacts that the adoption of the QM Rubric, principles, and emphasis on continuous improvement can have, such as fostering a dialogue within an institution or academic unit on what constitutes quality in online education, encouraging consistency of online course design, and so on, at the institutional level, and others. But we always return to the basic question of impact on learners and learning. To answer the question and explain why a more convincing demonstration of the Rubric's impact, we need to start with recognition of the nature of the Rubric itself.