Most AI roadmaps are wishlists. This is the scorecard we use with revenue teams to rank AI projects on Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Innovation, then sequence them by impact and effort.
The scoring framework runs in 15 minutes. The argument it produces holds up for the rest of the quarter.
Add every AI project on the table. Be specific. "Use AI for marketing" is not a project.
Tag each project to Efficiency, Effectiveness, or Innovation. One primary dimension per project.
Six criteria per dimension. 1 is marginal, 4 is transformational. The totals roll up to 0 to 24.
Estimate delivery effort. Quick wins ship first. Big bets get planned. Reconsiders get killed.
The three dimensions are not mutually exclusive. They are different arguments. Picking the primary lens forces the sponsor to defend the project on its strongest claim, instead of hiding behind all three.
Doing work faster.
Automate manual tasks. Shrink cycle times. Scale output without adding headcount. The dollar return is the easiest to defend and the easiest to underweight.
Doing work better.
Move the metric that matters. Lift conversion. Improve forecast confidence. Align teams around one number. The argument lives in pipeline, not in hours saved.
Doing new things.
Build capabilities the business does not have today. Create market differentiation. Become a True Growth Driver, not a faster cost center.
Add projects, score them on six criteria, set the delivery effort. The dashboard ranks the portfolio and plots it on an impact vs effort matrix. Edits save to this browser.
The four quadrants are not equal. Treat them differently. Most teams overinvest in the wrong two.
Sequence two of these in the current quarter. Use them to fund credibility for the bigger bets. Most teams have more quick wins than they realize, because they never scored.
Big bets need executive sponsorship, dedicated capacity, and a milestone plan. The risk is not scope. The risk is treating them like a pilot and starving them of resources.
Useful, not strategic. Give them to a single owner. Do not budget against them. Do not let them crowd out a big bet.
The hardest projects to cut are the ones that already have champions. Cut them anyway. Rescope to a quick win, or shelve until the conditions change.
Short, direct answers. The framework is built to survive the same questions in a budget review.
Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Innovation.
Every AI project has a primary dimension. Score it there.
ROI alone flattens projects that look the same on paper and behave very differently in practice. An AI agent that saves 30 hours a week is efficiency. A predictive model that lifts win rate 4 points is effectiveness. An AEO content engine that captures a new buyer behavior is innovation.
Same dollar return. Very different consequences for the business. The three-dimension model surfaces the difference so the sponsor has to defend the project on its actual strength.
Ask the sponsor what they would defend in a budget review.
If the sponsor cannot answer in one sentence, the project is not ready to score.
Four quadrants. Each one comes with a different decision.
Two to four active AI projects per quarter, biased toward quick wins. Land two, learn what worked, then add a big bet in the next quarter.
The most common failure mode is running eight pilots that all stall. The portfolio looks busy. Nothing ships.
No. The scorecard is a triage tool. It tells you which 3 of 30 ideas deserve a real business case.
The business case still owns the numbers, the assumptions, the dependencies, and the risk register. Treat the scorecard as the pre-read, not the proposal.
Yes. Your project list, scores, and effort estimates persist to this browser's local storage. Nothing is sent to a server. Open a private window or click Clear all to start fresh.
You have the scorecard. We have spent the last 3 years inside B2B revenue teams putting AI into production, and the 14 years before that inventing the Revenue Marketing category. Bring your top three. Leave with a 90-day plan.