Playbook - Step 2 of 3

Find your best AI use cases

Choose one or two AI opportunities your team can execute with confidence in the next 30-60 days.

Who it's for: Best for teams choosing one pilot this quarter, not browsing AI ideas casually.

Time to complete: 90 minutes workshop + 30 minutes scoring review

Who should own this: A product or operations lead with authority to pick one pilot and commit review cadence.

PDF toolkit includes

Prioritization worksheet for ranking workflow bottlenecks
VCR scoring sheet with weighted criteria
30-day pilot brief template with owner and stop criteria

Run the matching diagnostic (4-5 minutes)Read the research (8 min)Bring this into a working session

The problem

Most teams have too many AI ideas and not enough evidence. Every use case sounds promising, so prioritization turns into opinion and urgency bias.

That usually leads to broad experimentation with weak follow-through. You get activity, but not outcomes you can defend.

This playbook helps you narrow the list to use cases that are valuable, feasible, and trustworthy in your current system.

The framework

The VCR framework

Score each candidate use case across three lenses before you commit resources.

Value: Does this remove a costly bottleneck or create meaningful output?
Clarity: Is the workflow clear enough that success and failure are obvious?
Readiness: Do data quality, ownership, and guardrails support rollout now?

Step-by-step actions

Step 1
List 10 current workflow bottlenecks where teams lose time or quality every week.
Output
A ranked bottleneck list with recurrence and impact notes.
Owner
Workflow owner plus one operator from the team doing the work.
Done when
The list reflects real recurring pain, not hypothetical AI opportunities.
Step 2
Pick the top 3 by business impact and frequency of recurrence.
Output
Three candidate workflows with explicit business impact statements.
Owner
Playbook owner with finance or operations partner input.
Done when
Each candidate has a measurable value hypothesis tied to speed, quality, or cost.
Step 3
For each one, define the exact before-and-after state in one sentence.
Output
Three before/after outcome statements in plain language.
Owner
Playbook owner with frontline workflow lead.
Done when
A new team member can read the statement and understand success instantly.
Step 4
Score each option with the VCR framework on a 1-5 scale and remove weak fits.
Output
Completed VCR scorecard with a visible top candidate.
Owner
Playbook owner plus decision stakeholder.
Done when
One option clearly leads on value, clarity, and readiness.
Step 5
Select one primary use case and one backup; assign a single accountable owner.
Output
Pilot decision memo with owner, scope, and review cadence.
Owner
Founder, GM, or function lead who can unblock decisions.
Done when
One named owner is accountable for launch, review, and stop/scale decisions.
Step 6
Run a 30-day pilot with baseline metrics, weekly review, and explicit stop criteria.
Output
Live pilot tracker with baseline, week-by-week movement, and decision log.
Owner
Pilot owner with weekly sponsor check-ins.
Done when
You can clearly call scale, iterate, or stop based on evidence instead of opinion.

Common mistakes

Starting with tool capabilities instead of workflow pain.
Choosing use cases with unclear ownership.
Calling a pilot successful without metric movement.
Scaling before trust and review patterns are stable.

When not to use this

You are in active incident mode and cannot support disciplined rollout.
Core data needed for the workflow is currently unreliable.
No owner can commit weekly decision time for the pilot.

FAQ

How many pilots should we run at once?

One serious pilot and one backup is usually enough. More than that often dilutes attention and makes learning noisy.

How long should the first pilot last?

Four to six weeks is long enough to see behavior change and short enough to stop quickly if value is weak.

Next step

Recommended next move: run the diagnostic now while this framework is still fresh.

Run the matching diagnostic (4-5 minutes)Read the research (8 min)Bring this into a working session

Teams usually leave this session with one clearer pilot scope, one owner, and one decision they can make this week.

Download PDF

Get the PDF toolkit for internal sharing, workshop facilitation, and execution.

Prioritization worksheet for ranking workflow bottlenecks
VCR scoring sheet with weighted criteria
30-day pilot brief template with owner and stop criteria

Find your best AI use cases

Choose one or two AI opportunities your team can execute with confidence in the next 30-60 days.

Who it's for: Best for teams choosing one pilot this quarter, not browsing AI ideas casually.

Time to complete: 90 minutes workshop + 30 minutes scoring review

Who should own this: A product or operations lead with authority to pick one pilot and commit review cadence.

PDF toolkit includes

Prioritization worksheet for ranking workflow bottlenecks
VCR scoring sheet with weighted criteria
30-day pilot brief template with owner and stop criteria

The problem

Most teams have too many AI ideas and not enough evidence. Every use case sounds promising, so prioritization turns into opinion and urgency bias.

That usually leads to broad experimentation with weak follow-through. You get activity, but not outcomes you can defend.

This playbook helps you narrow the list to use cases that are valuable, feasible, and trustworthy in your current system.

The framework

The VCR framework

Score each candidate use case across three lenses before you commit resources.

Value: Does this remove a costly bottleneck or create meaningful output?
Clarity: Is the workflow clear enough that success and failure are obvious?
Readiness: Do data quality, ownership, and guardrails support rollout now?

Step-by-step actions

Step 1

List 10 current workflow bottlenecks where teams lose time or quality every week.

Output

A ranked bottleneck list with recurrence and impact notes.

Owner

Workflow owner plus one operator from the team doing the work.

Done when

The list reflects real recurring pain, not hypothetical AI opportunities.

Step 2

Pick the top 3 by business impact and frequency of recurrence.

Output

Three candidate workflows with explicit business impact statements.

Owner

Playbook owner with finance or operations partner input.

Done when

Each candidate has a measurable value hypothesis tied to speed, quality, or cost.

Step 3

For each one, define the exact before-and-after state in one sentence.

Output

Three before/after outcome statements in plain language.

Owner

Playbook owner with frontline workflow lead.

Done when

A new team member can read the statement and understand success instantly.

Step 4

Score each option with the VCR framework on a 1-5 scale and remove weak fits.

Output

Completed VCR scorecard with a visible top candidate.

Owner

Playbook owner plus decision stakeholder.

Done when

One option clearly leads on value, clarity, and readiness.

Step 5

Select one primary use case and one backup; assign a single accountable owner.

Output

Pilot decision memo with owner, scope, and review cadence.

Owner

Founder, GM, or function lead who can unblock decisions.

Done when

One named owner is accountable for launch, review, and stop/scale decisions.

Step 6

Run a 30-day pilot with baseline metrics, weekly review, and explicit stop criteria.

Output

Live pilot tracker with baseline, week-by-week movement, and decision log.

Owner

Pilot owner with weekly sponsor check-ins.

Done when

You can clearly call scale, iterate, or stop based on evidence instead of opinion.