Now that you know to aim for transformations wherever possible, let me show you how to create a strong business transformation challenge. Challenges in general can be written as statements or questions. We suggest that you use a question format for two reasons. It provides direction, and it helps trigger ideas for solving the challenge. For example, suppose I said, "Our challenge is to increase sales." Not very inspiring, right? What if I asked instead, "How might we increase our sales?" It triggers ideas, right? You get the idea. So, in this module, we'll focus on crafting the ideal question for your business challenge. As we go through the steps, I'll point out a few tips to help you focus on the why and apply 10x thinking with the superpowers of Cloud technology. First, let's establish the appropriate scope for your question. You can do this by combining two actions. You'll need to aim straight and shoot for the moon, or make it aspirational. Aiming straight means setting a challenge that is neither too broad nor too specific. This involves a delicate balance. You don't want to choose something that is too broad or isn't tied to your organization's objectives because that isn't likely to result in transformation. Let's take real estate as an example. As a realtor, your initial challenge might be, "How could we find a perfect home for each potential buyer?" As it stands, this question is a bit vague and a bit broad. What is perfect in this context? Where are these homes? In a specific country or just anywhere? What would we uncover if we focus on the why? What does the customer ultimately want? So with some refinement and aiming straight, you can rephrase the question as, "How could we provide all of the relevant information on the houses our customers are considering purchasing in the United States?" Shoot for the moon is an important second step in defining the scope of your challenge. Shooting for the moon helps to create a springboard for a challenge that is at the edge of what is possible and helps facilitate transformation. This is the heart of 10x thinking. Let's use this 10x thinking in a customer service example. As a manager, your initial challenge might be, "How can we provide customer information in real time?" There's probably some room to push this further. What would make the challenge more aspirational, especially now that you know more about the superpowers of the Cloud? How about, "How can we provide a faster, more personalized customer service experience using voice recognition or sentiment analysis when customers call us?" That would be transformational, wouldn't it? To recap, aiming straight refers to a challenge that isn't too broad or too specific, and is grounded in your mission, your why, and shooting for the moon is about creating a challenge that will result in solutions that are 10x better than what you currently have. This brings us to the key features of a good transformation challenge: it's best phrased as a question. There's no obvious or implied solution. The solution will be a lasting impact on people, processes, and technology. Of course, you play a role in leading or supporting the solution. Crafting the ideal business challenge that is the right mix of focused and aspirational takes practice. Let me give you a few tips to help you create stronger challenges quickly. Tip 1, use one of these question starters. Grab a piece of paper or open up a slide using your favorite productivity tools. At the top, write your challenge question using one of these formats. Then, fill in the blank. Remember to aim straight and shoot for the moon. Here are a few examples of great transformation challenges from different industries. If you're working in retail, you might ask, "How can we re-imagine the checkout experience with ML to double our customer satisfaction score compared to the existing process?" If you're working in pharmaceuticals you might ask, "How can we rethink the way customers and their doctors indicate a need for a refill prescription with a 100 percent accuracy and in half the time it currently takes? Tip 2, use different personas. It might help to question a problem or product from various perspectives using personas. For example, if a baby picked up your product, what would they want to know about it? What questions would a baby ask? Similarly, ask questions as though you're a detective or a journalist. What do you uncover? How might you use your discoveries to refine your challenge? Tip 3, subtract a core component. Another useful method can be to subtract a core component or resource. As you frame your challenge, see what new possibilities emerge if you try to achieve a business goal by removing something substantial in a product or service. For example, take classroom training. How might we deliver training at scale and in person if we removed the instructor? Google actually did this with one of its courses. The result, it dropped the cost of running the class to zero and allowed the course to scale quickly across the company with engagement scores. When you focus on your why, and you refine your challenge with these tips, you'll soon be able to create a strong challenge that will help you define a strong business challenge to tackle. Now, even if you have a challenge that is in scope and in format, how do you know if it's the right one for you and your teams to invest time and resources in? Examining your business data end-to-end is a key way to better assess where you need to focus your efforts. I'll cover how to do that next.
