Anchor On The Business Question
Start by asking the sponsor what they report every Monday. Revenue leaders obsess over cycle time and forecast accuracy, support leaders care about backlog and CSAT, COOs stare at cost-to-serve. The playbook that maps cleanly to that metric will feel like an obvious win.
If the KPI is about frontline productivity or customer response, Generative-AI Integration is almost always the fastest lever. If leadership laments conflicting dashboards, Data & Analytics Modernization unlocks trust. When digital journey conversion is stalled, AI-Powered CX delivers the narrative stakeholders need.
- Match KPI → playbook: cycle time → Generative-AI Integration; data trust → Data & Analytics Modernization; CX conversion → AI-Powered CX.
- Document the before-state metric so the improvement story writes itself.
- Name the exec who will narrate the before/after in 90 days.
Assess Readiness In Your Stack
Momentum requires working with what you already own. If Salesforce, Zendesk, or NetSuite are healthy, copilots can land immediately. If data pipelines are brittle, modernisation may take the first slot so you stop debating numbers.
Market-facing teams with clear governance often succeed quickly with AI-Powered CX. Highly regulated environments or siloed data usually benefit from a modernization sprint before CX experimentation.
- Inventory core systems and note owners willing to partner.
- Log any security or compliance guardrails that the pod must satisfy.
- Pick the playbook with the fewest net-new integrations in the first 30 days.
Plan The 13-Week Cadence
Weeks 1-2: confirm success metrics, capture workflows, and align the senior pod with domain SMEs.
Weeks 3-6: deliver the pilot inside the existing tool. Keep humans in the loop, collect feedback daily, and make the metrics visible.
Weeks 7-11: scale the pilot to the next cohort or region. Close change management gaps, expand ingestion, and automate mundane steps.
Weeks 12-13: publish the before/after story and lay out the roadmap for the next lane.
- Block weekly steering reviews with the sponsor.
- Share instrumentation dashboards inside the team’s existing channels.
- Announce the 90-day readout during week one so expectations stay aligned.