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Module 12 · Lesson 12.5 · 11 min

Picking Your Next Three Use Cases

Use your ROI data to choose the next round of work with a simple scoring method.

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Module 12
ROI: Proving It Paid Off

Turn a feeling into a number your partners will believe

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The uncomfortable question
If you cannot say what it returns, someone will switch it off.
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The method

Four numbers, one page

  1. 1Hours savedSame task, before and after
  2. 2True costSoftware, usage, supervision
  3. 3QualityRework and errors avoided
  4. 4AI P&LNet gain, payback, ROI
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Lesson 12.1

Measuring hours saved

Count human minutes, not machine minutes.

  • Time three real runs per task
  • Include your review and fixes
  • Value hours at loaded cost
  • Decide where the saved hours go
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Illustrative example

Roofing contractor quotes

BeforeAfter
Minutes per quote7020
Quotes per month4040
Hours per month4713

Illustrative numbers for teaching, not a sourced statistic.

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Lesson 12.2

What each agent really costs

The subscription is rarely the biggest line.

  • Share of your Claude plan
  • Tools bought only for the agent
  • Weekly supervision time
  • One-off build hours
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Lesson 12.3

Quality counts too

Fast and wrong is expensive.

  • Define failure per agent
  • Sample ten outputs a week
  • Rework above 25 percent: fix first
  • Count errors avoided as gains
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Lesson 12.4

The three formulas

  1. NetMonthly gainTotal gain minus total monthly cost
  2. PaybackMonthsBuild cost divided by net monthly gain
  3. ROIAnnualNet annual return divided by total annual cost
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Illustrative agency P&L

Five agents on one sheet

4 of 5paid back within two months
1switched off for high rework
1 pageto get partner approval
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Lesson 12.5

Score your next use cases

CriterionHigh score means
ValueMany hours per month
RepeatabilitySame steps every time
Data readinessInformation in one place
RiskLow damage if wrong
EffortQuick to build
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Decision rule

Keep, fix or kill

Every row ends with a decision.

  • Payback under three months: scale it
  • High rework: fix the context
  • Negative after three months: switch off
  • Pick three next, never ten
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Recap
Measure honestly, decide on one page, and let the numbers choose what you build next.
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01 / 12

Use ← → to move. The marker highlights text and the pencil draws on the slide; navigation locks while you annotate. Undo removes the last mark, Esc exits.

1Collect candidate use cases

List every task still on your Time Map that has not been automated, plus ideas from your team. Aim for 10 to 20 candidates. Include the boring ones, they are often the best.

2Score each one on five criteria

Use the prioritization sheet: hours per month (value), repeatability, data readiness, risk if it goes wrong, and effort to build. Score 1 to 5 each. Risk and effort are scored in reverse, so low risk and low effort get high scores.

3Let Claude challenge your scores

Owners tend to underestimate effort and risk. Ask Claude to review your sheet against what it knows about your business and your existing skills.

Prompt for Claude
Here is my list of candidate use cases with scores (CSV below). Using what you know about my business from CLAUDE.md and the skills we already have, challenge any score that looks optimistic, point out which candidates could reuse an existing skill, and recommend the top three with one sentence of reasoning each.
4Pick three, not ten

Choose the top three by total score, with at most one high-risk item. Three is enough to keep momentum and still measure each one properly. Everything else waits for the next quarterly review.

5Document the decision

Write a short note: the three chosen, why, the expected hours saved, and the date you will review results. This note becomes the starting point of your 90-day roadmap in Module 14.

CSVAI ROI CalculatorWorksheetCSVCost per Agent WorksheetWorksheetCSVNext Use Cases Prioritization SheetWorksheet

After the first wins, every owner has the same problem: twenty ideas and one pair of hands. The loudest idea usually wins, and the loudest idea is rarely the most valuable.

You now have data. Hours per task, rework rates, costs. Use it. A simple scoring sheet turns a wish list into a ranked plan in fifteen minutes.

Key points

  • Score candidates on value, repeatability, data readiness, risk and effort.
  • Boring, frequent, low-risk tasks usually win.
  • Pick three, measure them, then pick again.
  • Write the decision down with a review date.

Avoid

  • Starting with the most exciting idea instead of the most valuable one.
  • Picking ten projects and finishing none.
  • Ignoring data readiness, then discovering the information lives in five spreadsheets.
  • Skipping the review date, so nothing is ever measured.
Real-world example: a law firm

A small law firm listed 14 ideas. The partners wanted an AI contract drafting assistant first. Scoring put it low: high risk and high effort. The top three were engagement letter preparation, court deadline reminders and weekly matter status updates to clients. All three shipped within a month, and the saved hours funded a careful, supervised pilot of the drafting idea later.

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