Using Goals to create Opportunity-Solution trees

Creating Opportunity-Solution trees is a powerful way to visualize your Goals and how you plan to achieve them. This guide explains how to set them up in TheyDo.

Creating Opportunity-Solution trees

Once you have completed mapping and aligning on your Goals, you can dig into journeys and easily link Opportunities and Solutions to the end Goal. The resulting overview is called an 'Opportunity-Solution tree'.

An Opportunity-Solution tree is a visual representation of how you plan to achieve your Goal. Opportunity-Solution trees break down your Goal into multiple Opportunities and their related Solutions. They help you to break down Goals into manageable pieces that you can deliver on, while also being a surefire way to maintain clear direction and focus by positioning company goals as the umbrella for everything you do.

Tips for linking Goals, Opportunities and Solutions

Breaking down Goals into manageable parts does require some critical thinking and alignment. Keep these tips in mind when you start setting up your own Opportunity-Solution trees in TheyDo:

1. Focus on Outcomes, Not Outputs: When creating an Opportunity Solution Tree, focus on customer or business outcomes, not just the outputs (features or products). The tree should highlight ways to achieve desired outcomes rather than just producing deliverables.

2. Ensure Breadth Before Depth: Explore a broad range of Opportunities before deep-diving into particular Solutions. This approach ensures a wide perspective and prevents early fixation on a single idea or Solution.

3. Engage Stakeholders: Involve key stakeholders in creating the Opportunity Solution Tree. This helps align everyone around shared Goals and encourages collaborative decision-making.

4. Prioritize: Not all Opportunities and Solutions are equal. Prioritize them based on the potential impact, feasibility, alignment with business goals, and resources required. This approach guides decision-making and helps maintain focus.

5. Make it MECE: Make sure your Goals, Opportunities and Solutions are MECE: Mutually Exclusive, yet Collectively Exhaustive.

6. Iterate and Refine: The Opportunity Solution Tree is not a one-time activity. It should be refined and iterated upon as new information emerges, assumptions are tested, and feedback is received. This flexibility enables you to adapt to changes and ensure the tree remains relevant and valuable.

7. Use a consistent hierarchy: Make sure you split up your Opportunities and Solutions in a consistent way across the organization. Read this guide to learn more about how to set this up.