Building Capability
Tool: The Proof of Value Designer
Chapter: 6 — The Proof of Value
Purpose: Define what success looks like for your first phase — before you build — so that the system is designed to produce it, and the result is undeniable.
How to Use This Tool
Complete this tool after you’ve identified your entry point (Chapter 5 tool). It forces you to define the proof of value before building starts — which changes what gets designed, what gets measured, and how the result gets communicated.
Before you begin: Pull out the Process Overlay from Chapter 2 that corresponds to your chosen entry point. That overlay is your “before” picture. Every step on it that is currently amber or red, every handoff that causes friction, every manual decision that slows things down — those are the raw materials of your proof of value. The metric you choose should be directly readable from that overlay.
Allow 45 minutes. This is best done with whoever will own the investment decision and whoever will own the operational outcome.
Part 1: The Baseline
Before you can prove value, you need to know what you’re starting from.
1. What is the current state of the process or problem this first phase addresses?
Describe it as specifically as possible. Not “it’s slow and manual” — but what it actually involves, how long it takes, who does it, and what typically goes wrong.
Current process:
Who does it:
How long it takes (estimate per occurrence):
How often it occurs (per day / week / month):
Total time consumed per month (estimate):
What typically goes wrong:
2. What does this currently cost — in time, money, or errors?
Put numbers on it. Estimates are fine, but be specific.
Staff time cost per month (hours × rate):
Error cost (average cost of a mistake × frequency):
Revenue impact (if applicable — what's being lost or left on the table):
Any other cost:
3. What are you not doing because of this constraint?
Often the biggest cost is the opportunity cost — what the team can’t get to because they’re stuck in this.
What's not getting done:
What that costs the business:
Part 2: Choosing the Right Metric
4. What would you most want to be able to say at the end of the first phase?
Write it as a one-sentence claim. “We reduced X from Y to Z.” “We now handle X volume with the same headcount.” “Our clients can now do X themselves in Y minutes.”
The claim we want to make:
5. Is this metric visible?
A metric that requires a complex calculation to see will always be contested. Can you point at this result directly — in the system, in a time log, in a client experience?
How the result will be visible:
6. Is this metric measurable before and after?
If you can’t measure the before, you can’t prove the after. Confirm you have (or can establish) a baseline.
Your Process Overlay already contains the before picture. The steps that are currently amber or red, the handoffs that cause delay, the decisions that require a senior person — these are your baseline. If you haven’t measured them precisely yet, now is the time.
Baseline measurement (before):
How you'll measure after:
7. Is this metric relevant to the right audience?
Who needs to be convinced by the proof of value — and does the metric speak their language?
Primary audience for the proof:
Whether this metric resonates with them (yes / needs adjusting):
If adjusting — what metric better serves this audience:
Part 3: What the Proof Unlocks
8. If this first phase goes well, what does it make possible?
Think beyond the immediate result. What conversation does a successful first phase open up? What investment does it justify? What next phase does it enable?
What it makes possible:
What conversation it opens:
What it justifies investing in next:
9. Who needs to see this proof — and what do you need them to decide?
Define your internal audience and what you’re asking them to do as a result of the proof.
Audience:
Decision you need them to make:
10. What would need to go wrong for the proof of value not to land?
Pre-mortem thinking. If the first phase delivers the technical result but the proof doesn’t land, what went wrong?
Risk:
How to mitigate:
Your Proof of Value Statement
Pull your answers together into a clear, single statement:
By the end of the first phase, we will have [delivered what], for [whom], resulting in [measurable outcome], which will [unlock / justify / demonstrate] [what comes next].
Our proof of value statement:
Online Version
Want to go deeper?
The online version of this tool includes a proof of value planning template with metric benchmarks across common scenarios (service businesses, professional services, operations-heavy businesses), a stakeholder communication guide, and a checklist for making sure your first phase is scoped to actually produce the proof — not just the feature.
Available in the members area at [website]