Three shapes of opportunity
Automate
Work you already do, minus the manual steps. The output turns up sooner and stops depending on one person remembering: intake requests that route themselves to the right person, data that stops being copied between two systems by hand, a weekly status update compiled from the tools people already use.
Automation is usually the best first project, because the correct output already exists to compare against.
Upgrade
The same job, with output people get more from: an annual report readers can filter to their own region, a policy manual staff can ask questions of, a quote that lays the options side by side.
Upgrades are often the most visible wins, because customers, members or the public feel them too. Strategy Navigator, our strategy advisor grounded in a client’s own strategy, is one: a document people used to file away becomes something they can question.
Invent
Work that was never practical, so nobody thought to ask for it: a daily brief on what’s being said about your sector, a review of every past project for what predicted success, a practice partner for new staff learning a complex process. The Solutions page has more examples.
Some won’t work out, and that’s worth budgeting for.
Many good ideas are two shapes at once: an automation becomes the foundation for an upgrade, and an upgrade can reveal an invention.
Efficiency and opportunity
Efficiency AI does existing work faster and cheaper. Opportunity AI does what the organization couldn’t do before.
Efficiency frees time and money and is often the easiest way in, but when everyone gets faster, faster stops being an advantage. Organizations that pull ahead tend to spend the saved time on opportunities, so a good map includes both.
Weighing effort and value
Value: time saved, how often the work happens, how many people it affects, what it improves for customers or the public, and whether it’s strategically new.
Effort: how well the work is understood, how clean and accessible the data is, how many systems are involved, the risk if it goes wrong, and how much change it asks of people.
Plotted together, they fall into four groups:
- Quick wins: high value, low effort.
- Strategic bets: high value, higher effort.
- Easy extras: low effort, modest value.
- Things to leave alone for now.
We’re candid about the last group. Saying so early saves money.
Choosing where to start
We usually recommend one or two opportunities that pair clear value with manageable effort, with an upgrade or invention alongside where there’s appetite.
Then we build them, so the next decisions rest on how a real team used a real tool.
Buy, connect or build
Each opportunity also needs a delivery route:
- Buy when a vendor’s whole product is the thing you need.
- Connect with a thin layer of custom tools between systems you already have.
- Build from scratch when the work is specific to you or creates an advantage.
Revisiting the map
Opportunities change as tools improve: something too hard six months ago may be straightforward now, and a tool in use suggests new ideas. We revisit the map as the work goes on; it isn’t meant to be filed.
What you leave with
- A prioritized map across automate, upgrade and invent.
- Effort and value estimates, with the reasoning behind them.
- A recommendation for where to start, and why.
- Often, a first working tool already in use.