This article published in Change Magazine describes the power of “performance tasks”: assignments where students engage in a real-world scenario, where they need to confront complexity and ambiguity, and use both disciplinary content and higher order thinking skills to arrive at a judgment or decision. The “product” that students create may take the form of a memo, presentation, oped, or report, reflecting what someone assuming the role of problem solver in a particular scenario would be expected to produce. Starting with the learning outcomes students should attain, faculty create performance tasks that both enable and assess learning. The article presents examples of the use of performance tasks in the natural sciences, humanities, mathematics, across multiple disciplines, and in a manner that advances institutional outcomes.