Chapter 9: Business Outcomes Are the Portfolio

When you review a list of AI projects, tools, and vendors, it's easy to spend the meeting talking about what has started. Organizing the same work around business outcomes helps you ask what you've learned, which decisions are due, and what the results justify.

The outcome card in Appendix A.4 gives each item a consistent record. Use it after choosing an opportunity, then update it as the decision changes. Include:

• the friction and outcome sought;
• the business owner;
• current maturity and appropriate maturity, with unknowns visible;
• the current decision position;
• committed cost and attention;
• the primary measure and evidence range;
• the next decision date;
• the sourcing choice, if made;
• the current status: stop, test, invest, industrialize, defer, or complete.

Those records let you review the set of commitments together. You can then decide whether each still deserves the people, money, and attention allocated to it.