Each card below is a prompt. Write your Elevator Vision for one engagement on the appropriate card. Practice saying it aloud until you can deliver it without reading. Then teach it to your sponsor: your job is not done until they can say it back to you.
Template: "Today, [specific clinicians / administrators] spend [X hours] on [specific manual process]. That's [human cost]. In [timeframe], [technology outcome] means [the same people] will [different experience]. For the hospital, that's [business outcome]. For patients, that's [patient-facing change]."
Template: "Right now, every [underwriting / claims / compliance] decision takes [X days] because [specific constraint]. By [date], [outcome] means that same decision takes [Y hours]. For the business, that's [revenue or risk impact]. For the team, that's [human change]."
Template: "When Line [X] goes down today, we know [Y minutes] later because [current detection method]. By [date], [sensors / AI outcome] means we know [Z minutes earlier], and the machine tells us what is wrong before it breaks. For production, that's [downtime reduction]. For the plant managers, that's [human change]."
Template: "[Customer name]'s engineering team spends [X]% of its time keeping [the current system] running. Every hour on that is an hour not spent on [the product / capability they're being asked to build by the board]. By [date], [migration outcome] changes that ratio: [X]% on maintenance becomes [Y]%. That's [Z engineer-hours] redirected to [specific initiative]. That's the conversation [customer executive] can now have with their board."
Deliver your Elevator Vision to a colleague playing the role of your sponsor. Ask them to repeat it back to you without your prompting. Grade the transfer:
| Element | Transferred accurately? (Y/N) | What got lost or distorted? |
|---|---|---|
| The World Before (current pain) | ||
| The Inciting Incident (urgency) | ||
| The Transformation (what changes) | ||
| The World After (outcome) | ||
| No jargon introduced by the sponsor |