Interesting use cases accumulate without an agreed value lens.
What we do / Outcomes and decisions
Grow. Perform. Scale. Protect.
These are the four business outcomes we look for when assessing an AI opportunity. The FORCE test helps determine whether the opportunity is valuable, realistic and ready to move forward.
At a glance
- What it is
- These are the four business outcomes we look for when assessing an AI opportunity. The FORCE test helps determine whether the opportunity is valuable, realistic and ready to move forward.
- Who it helps
- Growing organisations that need better AI priorities, a stronger product or experienced help with important work.
- What should change
- Strong opportunities may improve more than one outcome, but every claimed benefit still needs a measure and an accountable owner.
The business question
AI creates value when it changes an outcome that matters.
Most organisations already have plenty of AI ideas. The harder task is comparing them coherently, connecting them to business pressure and deciding which deserve scarce leadership attention.
What brings the question into focus
The pressure usually shows up before the plan.
Technology decisions become detached from work, adoption and accountability.
Activity is reported, while commercial impact remains difficult to evidence.
THE SHIFT
Grow, Perform, Scale and Protect create a common business language. They let different leaders examine the same opportunity from revenue, operating performance, capacity and trust perspectives before committing to action.
Questions worth resolving
Four questions for a useful diagnosis.
Use these prompts together. They expose the decision, the evidence and the conditions that need to be true before action makes sense.
01
Locate the pressure
Which business constraint are we trying to change?
02
Test the evidence
What evidence would justify investment?
03
Define the value
What needs to remain human?
04
Set the guardrail
What must be true for adoption and control?
01
Four outcomes. One business decision.
Strong opportunities may improve more than one outcome, but every claimed benefit still needs a measure and an accountable owner.
01
Grow
Improve demand, customer or member value, commercial insight and the way opportunities are won and served.
Explore this problem 02Perform
Improve productivity, capacity, margin, decision-making and the quality or speed of work.
Explore this problem 03Scale
Build operating capacity without equivalent increases in headcount, systems and friction.
Explore this problem 04Protect
Create proportionate governance, security, accountability and control around AI use.
Explore this problem02
How the framework works
Start with the material business pressure, then use the four lenses to test the opportunity from different leadership perspectives. A growth idea may also release skilled capacity. A scaling opportunity may fail without trustworthy information or practical control. The framework makes those connections visible without collapsing them into one vague transformation case.
Find the right starting point
What are you trying to make better with AI?
A focused conversation will establish what matters, what is already known and which kind of help is most useful.
03
How we assess an AI opportunity
We call this the FORCE test. It examines financial impact, organisational fit, readiness, complexity and control, and the evidence required before further investment.
F / Financial impact
What changes in revenue, cost, margin, capacity or investment, and how will the benefit be measured?
O / Organisational fit
Does the idea fit the strategy, customers, people, workflow and way the organisation actually operates?
R / Readiness
Are the information, technology, capability, sponsorship and timing good enough to begin?
C / Complexity and control
What could go wrong, how consequential is the use case and what approval or human oversight is required?
E / Evidence
What is known, what is assumed and what must be tested before the next commitment?
04
What the framework prevents
What this means in practice and what should be different when the work is complete.
Tool-first investment
Technology is considered after the outcome, user, workflow and evidence are understood.
Productivity theatre
Time saved is connected to demand, quality, economics and accountable benefit ownership.
Pilots without a destination
Every proof has a decision, evidence threshold and explicit route to stop, fix, start or scale.
Governance as a separate workstream
Trust, control and human accountability are designed into the opportunity from the beginning.
FAQ
Questions leaders ask.
Direct answers to the questions that commonly shape an initial conversation.
01What does Grow. Perform. Scale. Protect. mean in practice?+
These are the four business outcomes we look for when assessing an AI opportunity. The FORCE test helps determine whether the opportunity is valuable, realistic and ready to move forward.
02Who is Grow. Perform. Scale. Protect. most useful for?+
Growing organisations that need a clearer AI decision, a practical product route or focused senior capacity.
03What is the most useful next step?+
Strong opportunities may improve more than one outcome, but every claimed benefit still needs a measure and an accountable owner.
Find the right starting point
What are you trying to make better with AI?
A focused conversation will establish what matters, what is already known and which kind of help is most useful.
Find your starting point