In our discussion of the Customer Activity Cycle, we mapped the Capabilities required (by different customers types and customers) to support the user doing her "day job".
The final diagram looked like this:
Using the list of business benefits prepared in the last step, we can modify this diagram to reflect the benefits that our business will receive from implementing the various capabilities for the customer type or customer in question. For instance, we may think that implementing
There's not much additional effort required to take a "guesstimate" of the relative size of the individual benefits.
[Despite what the "numbers freaks" in the organisation might think, I would argue that a "guesstimate" is adequate and has the benefit of allowing us to recognise the relative importance of different approaches to capability implementation. The alternative is long, wieldy discussions which - in my experience - never really produce a result that the "numbers freaks" can fully accept. The subject matter is so intangible that "gut feeling" is as good a measure as any other!]
For our purposes, a simple classification of High, Medium, Low or To be Determined is sufficient. [To be Determined or Undefined has the advantage of maintaining the flow of the discussion when agreement can not be reached. It's often quite easy to resolve these details in a second round of discussion - if necessary after tempers have cooled off somewhat :-)]
This classification is used to colour code the diagram:
We now have everything we need to define implementation priorities and/or projects, safe in the knowledge that we are addressing the true customer requirements and leveraging the benefits to our best advantage.
That's quite an achievement, I'd say!
View Colm Toolan's profile