Workshop Pack: Opportunity Framing

Welcome

This workshop pack helps a team convert high-level curiosity into a clear, testable opportunity in a focused half-day session. The materials below provide facilitator notes, a timed agenda, exercise scripts, template outputs, prioritization guidance, and a ready-to-use one-page experiment proposal you can capture and act on immediately.

Who this is for

Small cross-functional teams, product or service owners, improvement teams, educators, researchers, and leaders who need a rapid way to clarify problems worth testing.

Duration & Primary Outcomes

• Duration: ~3 to 3.5 hours (half-day)
• Primary outcomes:
• One clear Opportunity Statement
• A prioritized set of candidate opportunities
• At least one one-page Experiment Proposal ready for immediate planning or execution

Prep & Materials

• Room or virtual workspace with whiteboard and breakout capability
• Sticky notes (digital or physical), pens, timer
• Slides: opener + agenda + instructions for each exercise
• Printed or shared templates for empathy maps, assumption maps, and experiment proposal
• Prioritization matrix spreadsheet or scoring board

Roles

• Facilitator — guides timing, prompts, and synthesis
• Note-taker / Recorder — captures outputs in shared doc or THE
• Timekeeper — keeps exercises on schedule
• Participants — bring evidence, perspectives, and customer empathy

Agenda (timed)

1. Opening & Context (15 minutes) — frame the challenge, goals, and expected outputs
2. Empathy Mapping (30 minutes) — understand the user/customer perspective
3. Assumption Mapping (30 minutes) — surface and cluster key assumptions
4. Problem Reframe & Opportunity Statement (30 minutes) — reframe the problem into an actionable opportunity
5. Break (10 minutes)
6. Prioritization Exercise (30 minutes) — score and prioritize candidate opportunities
7. One-Page Experiment Proposal (30–40 minutes) — draft at least one testable experiment
8. Wrap-Up, Next Steps & Ownership (15 minutes) — agree owners, timelines, and evidence collection plan

Facilitator Scripts & Guidance

Open with a short story or data point that shows why this curiosity matters. Make the expected outputs concrete and visible. Reinforce that the goal is a testable experiment, not a full solution.

Empathy Mapping (30 min)

Goal: build a shared view of the user’s experience and pain points.

• Divide into pairs or small groups. Each group fills an empathy map with: Says, Thinks, Does, Feels, Pain Points, and Gains.
• Capture 3–5 sticky notes per quadrant and then cluster common themes.
• Facilitator tip: Ask “what surprised you?” to surface insights that drive opportunity ideas.

Assumption Mapping (30 min)

Goal: surface what we believe but haven’t proven.

• Prompt participants to list assumptions behind current beliefs and potential solutions (customer behavior, technical feasibility, cost, compliance, etc.).
• Classify assumptions by uncertainty and impact (high/low). Focus next work on high-impact, high-uncertainty assumptions.
• Facilitator tip: Encourage naming assumptions as testable statements ("X will do Y if Z").

Problem Reframe & Opportunity Statement (30 min)

Goal: convert insights into a concise, testable opportunity.

Use this Opportunity Statement template (one line + one measurable aim):

Opportunity Statement: For [user], who wants/needs [need], we believe [insight about problem]. If we [proposed change], then [expected measurable outcome] by [measure/timeframe].

Example: For new hires who need faster onboarding, we believe unclear documentation causes delays. If we provide a role-based onboarding checklist, then new hires will complete core setup tasks 30% faster within 60 days.

Prioritization Exercise (30 min)

Goal: choose opportunities worth testing first.

Suggested scoring criteria (1–5, higher is better):

• Impact — potential benefit to users or business
• Feasibility — resources, technical complexity, and team capability
• Evidence Gap — how much we don’t know (score higher for high unknowns if you want to learn fast; or score lower to prefer less risky)
• Strategic Fit — aligns with strategy or OKRs

Suggested weights: Impact 40%, Feasibility 25%, Evidence Gap 20%, Strategic Fit 15%. Multiply scores by weights to compute a ranked list.

One-Page Experiment Proposal (30–40 min)

Goal: convert a prioritized opportunity into a timeboxed experiment with clear success criteria.

Use this template. Leave the workshop with at least one completed proposal.

1. Title
2. Opportunity Statement (copy from above)
3. Hypothesis — If we [action], then [measurable outcome] because [insight].
4. Primary Success Metric — one clear measurable KPI and baseline
5. Minimum Viable Experiment — simplest test to validate the hypothesis (what, who, where)
6. Timebox — length of experiment (e.g., 2 weeks)
7. Owner & Team — who runs it and who supports
8. Required Resources — tools, budget, access
9. Risks & Key Assumptions — what would invalidate the hypothesis
10. Data Collection Plan — how success will be measured and where data will be stored
11. Next Steps — decisions after the test (pivot, scale, stop)

Outputs & After-Workshop Governance

• Record all templates and chosen experiments in a shared repository (THE or team space).
• Assign owners and schedule a brief review within 48–72 hours to confirm resources and start dates.
• Plan a short results review at the experiment’s end and capture learnings as evidence for future decisions.

Remote Adaptation Tips

• Use virtual whiteboards (Miro, Mural, Jamboard) for empathy and assumption mapping.
• Break participants into smaller video breakout rooms for exercises and reconvene to synthesize.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Mistaking activity for progress — ensure each exercise ends with a committed, recorded output.
• Treating templates as fixed policies — adapt language and metrics to local context.
• Skipping ownership — experiments without an owner rarely start or finish.

Quick Implementation Checklist

• Finalize Opportunity Statement(s)
• Complete at least one One-Page Experiment Proposal
• Assign an owner and set a start date
• Record the proposal in the shared system and schedule the review

Capability Opportunities (how THE can help)

This playbook is intentionally structured to become a living toolkit inside THE. Consider these enhancements:

• Make the One-Page Experiment Proposal an Interactive form so teams can submit experiment details directly from the workshop (capture via the platform submission endpoint).
• Bundle this playbook into an Ownable Toolkit so teams can acquire, tailor, and version their local copy while preserving the canonical structure and templates.
• Connect submitted experiment proposals to a lightweight tracker or dashboard to monitor experiment status, owners, and outcomes over time.

Final Notes

This pack is a practical starting point — not a fixed process. Tweak time allocations, scoring weights, and template language to fit your organization. The most important outcomes are testable hypotheses, clear ownership, and a commitment to learn from measurable experiments.