Executive assessment
Before You Invest: Seven Questions for a Technology Decision
Use this before the decision, not after it. Each movement asks one question, states what the movement has to establish, and identifies what to record. If a movement cannot be answered yet, that gap is the next piece of work.
Work through the movements in order. An answer that cannot be written down plainly is usually a decision that has not been made.
Outcome
What must become materially different?
Define the business result, the people it serves, and the evidence that will show the investment mattered.
- Record
- The business consequence that must become different, and the evidence that will show it changed.
- Review question
- Which business outcome is important enough to govern this investment?
Diagnose
What is true, and what is only assumed?
Map the current workflow, systems, ownership, constraints, economics, and evidence before prescribing change.
- Record
- What the diagnosis shows underneath the presenting complaint.
- Review question
- What does the end-to-end work look like across people and systems today?
Design
What operating model will produce the outcome?
Shape process, decision rights, people, data, architecture, platforms, and controls as one system.
- Record
- The operating model that produces the outcome, including who holds which decision rights.
- Review question
- Is the constraint process, ownership, data, capability, configuration, or technology?
Decide
What will be configured, integrated, automated, built, retired, or left alone?
Make sequence, ownership, risk, and investment explicit so the organization does not default to buying or building its way around an operating problem.
- Record
- What will be configured, integrated, automated, built, retired, or deliberately left alone.
- Review question
- Which incumbent system should remain authoritative?
Execute
How will the work stay accountable?
Apply PACE to turn the decisions into visible delivery rhythms and usable operating practices.
- Record
- The delivery sequence that reduces risk before wider adoption.
- Review question
- What should be configured, integrated, automated, built, retired, or left alone?
Transfer
Who can operate this without the advisor?
Build internal capability, decision rights, documentation, and leadership habits so the investment creates independence rather than dependency.
- Record
- The capability that must remain with the organization afterward.
- Review question
- Who owns the operating change after the technology ships?
Measure
Did operating capacity actually change?
Evaluate adoption, economics, quality, risk, capacity, and business performance. Feed what the organization learns into the next decision cycle.
- Record
- The measure that will say whether to continue, change course, or stop.
- Review question
- Which measure will tell us to continue, change course, or stop?
Revision