Not sure where to start?
Start with your business.
You do not need a chosen problem, an AI project or any setup to use this. Five steps, in order, each one question at a time. Pen and paper is enough.
It is the same sequence as the printable worksheets and the assistant, so you can switch between them without starting again. Take one question at a time; no single answer finishes a step, and none of this is an assessment of your company.
1
How the work runs today
What it helps you decide: Where an improvement could help the business. Looking across the work gives us a way to discover possibilities even when you haven't chosen a problem. Use the map to describe what happens today and leave unknowns visible.
Start with: What does your business need to do well for its customers?
Then, one at a time, once you have written that answer down:
- How does that work get done today?
- Where do people have to work around a difficulty?
- What have we not yet observed?
Where it leads: Follow the answer into the relevant work, ask one useful question at a time, and keep several possible improvements open.
2
Current and appropriate maturity
What it helps you decide: Whether each relevant capability is dependable enough for its job. Use what people can show about today's work to assess the capability, with or without AI. The highest level isn't automatically appropriate, and an unknown stays unassessed.
Start with: How do people make sure that work happens reliably?
Then, one at a time, once you have written that answer down:
- What happens when the usual person is away?
- What can you show that supports that maturity assessment?
- How dependable does this capability need to be for its job?
Where it leads: Record current and appropriate maturity with reasons where evidence supports them, then add meaningful gaps to the candidate opportunities.
3
Several possibilities to compare
What it helps you decide: Which possible improvements deserve a closer comparison. The map may reveal opportunities in different parts of the company. Describe several, including simpler approaches or preparation, so the first idea doesn't become the priority by default.
Start with: What other improvement surfaced as we looked across the business?
Then, one at a time, once you have written that answer down:
- What could improve for the people involved?
- Is there a simpler approach worth considering?
- What would need preparation before it could be tested?
Where it leads: Keep a short list of candidates, each with a possible business outcome and a clearly described first step.
4
Score the candidates and explain why
What it helps you decide: Which opportunity deserves attention, given the reasons and uncertainty behind its ratings. Work through the five criteria one at a time for each candidate. Record the basis and unknowns beside each rating so a total doesn't hide a disagreement or an assumption.
Start with: What would improve in the business if this candidate worked?
Then, one at a time, once you have written that answer down:
- How plausible is improvement under the current conditions?
- How easily could the people involved absorb this change?
- How soon could you get useful evidence?
- How favorable are the cost and risk of this first step?
- What is the basis for that rating?
- What remains unknown?
Where it leads: Compare explained ratings and provisional bands, apply the hard gates, and let the owner choose what deserves the next step.
5
A bounded test, preparation, or a wait
What it helps you decide: What the owner will do next and what the company needs to learn. Use the experiment card to agree the scope, baseline or preparation gate, measure, people, limits, stop rule and decision date. A high score still allows a baseline-only step or a deliberate wait.
Start with: What do you need to learn before making a larger commitment?
Then, one at a time, once you have written that answer down:
- Do you have an appropriate baseline or measurement for the proposed test?
- What is the smallest useful step available now?
- Who would own that step?
- What limit would keep it manageable?
- What would cause it to stop?
- When will you review the result?
Where it leads: Record the owner's choice, deferred alternatives and re-entry conditions. After the agreed step, compare the observed result with the standard and decide what follows.
When you have a few possibilities
Use the business map to locate where each one lives, and the worksheets to record what you would need to see before spending anything. The decisions stay with you.
Once you have a test worth running, put it in your operating rhythm — a Rock, a key result, or a quarterly priority, with an owner and a decision date.