Frameworks · DECIDE

Value Zone
Method™

Four filters. One afternoon. 60% of AI initiatives killed. The rest funded with conviction.

The Problem This Solves

8–12 AI initiatives in flight. No way to decide which ones deserve funding.

Politics, sunk cost fallacy, and lack of structured evaluation criteria prevent executive teams from making defensible decisions. Resources spread thin across too many pilots. None reach production.

The Value Zone kill rate is 60%. Six out of ten pilots should never have been funded. The Value Zone Method surfaces this in an afternoon.

How It Works

Four sequential filters

Every AI initiative is evaluated against all four. If any answer is no, the initiative gets parked or killed. No exceptions, no politics.

1

Results

"Does this move a metric the CFO respects?"

Evidence required: Revenue, cost, margin, or risk impact
Kill signal: No quantifiable outcome
2

Engagement

"Will the team actually use it?"

Evidence required: Workflow fit, change burden assessment
Kill signal: High friction, low adoption likelihood
3

Skills

"Can we execute without heroics?"

Evidence required: Capability audit, vendor dependency check
Kill signal: Unfillable skills gap
4

Systems

"Does it fit our current stack?"

Evidence required: Architecture review, data readiness
Kill signal: Can't build the infrastructure in 90 days

The AI Sweet Spot

The intersection of all four filters. A workflow in the AI Sweet Spot has a measurable financial outcome, high team adoption likelihood, executable capability, and architectural fit. This is the only zone where initiatives should be funded.

Typical result: 2–4 pass from 8–12 evaluated.

Where This Fits

DECIDE phase — Workshop Day 1

The Value Zone Method is applied during the CHOOSE chapter of the Decision Discipline Program workshop. After the morning's COLLECT session surfaces all AI initiatives, the afternoon applies the four filters to determine which ones deserve funding.

Initiatives that pass all four filters move to Day 2 for the Investable Bet Gate™, where they receive a formal Fund, Park, or Kill verdict.

See how it works

Most organisations are funding too many pilots. Find out which ones deserve to survive.