Discovery operations guide
Finding opportunities
Find opportunities by identifying fields of potential improvement based on your insights.
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Find opportunities by identifying fields of potential improvement based on your insights. Expand or diverge your insights out through the lens of your department, team, or business line.
Each field of opportunity will probably contain multiple solutions or possible products. Resist the urge to jump from a single insight to a single solution, rather than identifying fields of opportunity. You want to look at a variety of solutions, so you don’t miss the best or most appropriate one(s).
Some insights will not present opportunities for your team. You will know that you have this type of insight on your hands if the insight would require your team to have expertise, influence, or time that is not currently possible. However, your team might be able to create action based on some of these insights through notifying other teams or departments of your findings. You and your leadership can work to make those collaborations happen in the future if you so choose.
Opportunities checklist
Use this checklist to guide you through finding opportunities:
Write all the insights discovered in the first three phases of the synthesis process on computer paper using Sharpie markers. Use a new sheet of paper for each Insight.
Tape the insights up across the wall or windows in a row.
There is no time limit here, but the Project Lead needs to pay careful attention to the energy in the room. Everyone, including the Lead, will be tired. Push everyone to keep up the work until it is thoroughly done.
Find and define opportunities
- Go through each insight and try to define two-three opportunities for each. Use the framework below to record your findings.
- This is not about finding the “right” answers. This is about looking at original research through the lens of what is possible for your team, department, or business line, to see new and better opportunities on which to work. Strive to find the best opportunities. Again, there is no single, right, perfect opportunity. Each field of opportunity will have within it multiple solutions to the problems you have studied.
- Not all insights will produce two-three opportunities; some will produce more than three; some will produce fewer. Write the opportunities you find on separate sheets of blank paper and tape or pin them up underneath the associated insight.
- Sometimes an insight will not have an opportunity for your department, team, or business line. This happens when the insight points to something that is out of your group’s control, such as an IT problem when you’re not in IT, or a clinical problem when you’re not a clinician. Communicate insights like this to your leadership if you can. Suggest they open a dialogue with the appropriate group. Sharing findings across groups encourages possible future high impact projects.
- Each person on the team should lead at least one round of looking at an insight through the lens of your department, team or business line and finding opportunities.
- Take photos of the insights and opportunities wall. Ensure you can see each insight and opportunity, and their relationship, in the photos. This documentation will allow you to go back and trace your logic later, if there are questions about how you and your team arrived at an opportunity, or if someone would like to expand on your work.
- Go relax. Light exercise can also be useful at this time.
