Step 5. Score for business value

With a long list of potential use cases, you need to prioritise. This step scores each use case on two dimensions. The first is business impact. The second, covered in Step 6, is feasibility. Together they give you the basis for a defensible roadmap.

Score each use case for business impact on a 1–5 scale:

Score	Label	Description
5	Strategic transformation	Directly enables or protects a stated strategic priority. Without this, the strategy stalls.
4	Significant value	Measurable improvement to a key business metric with clear ROI. Stakeholders will feel it.
3	Meaningful improvement	Improves efficiency or decision quality in a specific area. Useful but not urgent.
2	Incremental value	Improves visibility but does not change decisions materially. Nice to have.
1	No direct value	Does not change decisions or outcomes. May be requested but will not move the needle.

The scores only mean something relative to the strategy you documented in Step 3. A use case that would be a 2 at one company might be a 5 at another. Use the strategic barriers and priorities your leadership described to calibrate.

Example — B2B SaaS

Recall the strategy: grow to $500 million ARR by moving upmarket into mid-market and enterprise, and expanding into the US. The biggest barriers are a product not yet suited to larger teams, a sales team without enterprise deal experience, and an untested US go-to-market.

Stage	Question	Score	Reasoning
Marketing	Which campaigns are driving signups, and what is the cost per trial?	2	Useful visibility but does not change how the team operates.
Marketing	Which campaigns are most likely to bring in accounts that convert and stay? Where should we shift budget?	4	Directly improves the quality of the acquisition pipeline, which is critical to ARR growth and the upmarket push.
Sales	What is our win rate by deal size and segment? Where are we losing?	3	Important context for building the enterprise motion but primarily diagnostic.
Sales	Which prospects are most likely to close, and which should the team prioritise this week?	3	Operationally useful as the team builds enterprise deal skills, but not strategic on its own.
Signup	Where are people dropping off in the signup flow?	2	Incremental improvement to the SMB funnel, which is not the strategic focus.
Signup	Which visitors are most likely to complete signup if we intervene?	2	Same — marginal gain on a channel that is not the growth lever.
Onboarding	What proportion of new accounts complete onboarding, and how long does it take?	2	Useful baseline but does not change decisions materially.
Onboarding	Which new accounts are struggling and need intervention before they disengage?	3	Prevents early churn, which matters more as accounts get larger.
Activation	What is our time to first value, and how does it vary by segment?	3	Understanding whether larger accounts activate differently informs the product investment needed for enterprise.
Activation	Which users are at risk of never activating, and what nudge is most likely to help?	4	High-value intervention, particularly as the business moves into accounts where failed activation is expensive.
Ongoing usage	Which features are being used and which are being ignored?	2	Useful context but does not directly drive a decision without further analysis.
Ongoing usage	Which product investments would most improve retention? Which disengaged users are about to churn?	5	Directly answers the question of what to build for larger accounts, and surfaces at-risk accounts before they are lost. Central to both the upmarket strategy and ARR growth.
Expansion	Which accounts have grown usage without upgrading their plan?	3	Identifies obvious revenue left on the table. Tactical but meaningful.
Expansion	Which accounts are ready to expand, and what is the right offer and timing?	4	Drives incremental ARR from the existing base, which compounds over time.
Renewal	What is our renewal rate by segment and cohort?	2	Important KPI but visibility only — does not tell the team what to do.
Renewal	Which accounts are at risk of not renewing, and what should we do about each one?	5	Directly protects ARR, which is the foundation of the $500 million target. High-value accounts at risk of churning have an outsized impact on the number.
Churn	Why are customers leaving, and does the reason vary by segment?	3	Informs strategy and product decisions, especially understanding whether upmarket accounts churn for different reasons.
Churn	Which active accounts are most likely to churn in the next 90 days?	4	Actionable and timely — gives the customer success team a prioritised list to work from.
Win-back	What is our win-back rate, and which types of former customers return?	2	Useful context but low priority relative to preventing churn in the first place.
Win-back	Which churned accounts are worth pursuing, and what offer has the best chance of working?	3	Incremental revenue, but not a strategic lever given the focus on new growth.

Example — Non-bank lender

Recall the strategy: grow the loan book from $2 billion to $10 billion by lending to a broader range of borrowers, winning more customers directly rather than through brokers, and lowering the cost of funding. The biggest barriers are limited data on riskier borrowers, broker concentration, and slow document collection.

Stage	Question	Score	Reasoning
Marketing	Which campaigns are generating applications that go on to settle? What is the cost per settled loan?	2	Useful channel monitoring but does not change the mix or the strategy.
Marketing	Where should we shift budget to get more of the right applications?	4	Directly supports the goal of growing direct origination and reducing reliance on brokers.
Referral	Which brokers are sending the most volume and the best quality applications?	3	Important for managing the broker relationship, but primarily a performance view.
Referral	Which brokers should we invest more in, and which are costing more than they are worth?	4	Addresses the broker concentration risk directly — optimising the mix is a stated strategic priority.
Application	What is application volume by channel and how is the mix trending?	2	Useful monitoring but does not drive a decision on its own.
Application	Are there sources of applications we are underinvesting in?	3	Supports the direct origination strategy — identifying underserved channels is a growth lever.
Pre-approval	What proportion proceed to full approval, and where do they fall over?	3	Important for credit quality monitoring, especially as the borrower mix shifts.
Pre-approval	Which applications are likely to fail at approval so we can flag them early?	3	Reduces wasted effort in the pipeline and improves the experience for applicants who would have declined.
Document collection	How long is this taking, and where are the delays?	3	Addresses the operational bottleneck identified as a strategic barrier. Diagnostic but necessary.
Document collection	Which applications are going to miss settlement targets unless we intervene?	4	Actionable intervention on the specific bottleneck the CEO flagged. Directly improves conversion at a critical stage.
Approval	What is our approval rate, and how does credit performance compare to what we expected?	4	Critical for monitoring the expansion into riskier borrowers — if the models are wrong, the strategy breaks down.
Approval	Are there applications in the queue we should prioritise or escalate?	3	Operational efficiency gain; useful but not transformative.
Settlement and funding	What proportion of settlements are on time, and where do delays come from?	2	Monitoring view. Most of the actionable work sits earlier in the pipeline at document collection.
Settlement and funding	Which loans in the pipeline are at risk of not settling on time?	3	More actionable than the descriptive version — allows the team to intervene before a settlement falls over.
Servicing	How is the book performing by cohort, product, and channel?	2	Important KPI but visibility only — does not change decisions without further analysis.
Servicing	Which borrowers are showing early signs of stress before they miss a payment?	5	Directly protects credit quality as the book expands into riskier borrowers. This is the single most important capability for making the broader strategy viable.
Hardship	What proportion of hardship arrangements result in the borrower returning to normal repayments?	2	Useful outcome tracking but limited direct impact.
Hardship	Which borrowers are at risk of entering hardship in the next three months?	4	Enables proactive management and reduces the number of borrowers who reach a worse outcome. Supports credit quality at scale.
Arrears	Which contact approaches are most effective at resolving arrears?	3	Improves collections efficiency and is measurable, but impact is bounded.
Arrears	Which borrowers in arrears are most likely to resolve without escalation, and which need immediate action?	4	Directly improves collections outcomes and reduces bad debt — material financial impact across a large book.
Discharge or refinance	How many customers are leaving at refinance and what is the typical timing?	2	Useful context but does not drive action on its own.
Discharge or refinance	Which borrowers are most likely to refinance away in the next six months, and is there an offer that would retain them?	4	Reducing runoff directly supports the loan book growth target. High financial impact if even a small proportion are retained.

You now know what is worth building. Step 6 maps the data you have, so that Step 7 can tell you what you can actually build with it.