Funnel
Inspired by: CRM Funnel | Team counterpart: Story
The Funnel tracks all improvement opportunities from identification to value capture across the organization. Where the Story documents a single improvement arc, the Funnel aggregates all Stories and shows the organizational pipeline of transformation.
Purpose
- Collect all improvement opportunities with estimated value-capture potential
- Track each opportunity through stages: identified → validated → planned → executed → realized
- Provide the Project Leader with a portfolio view for prioritization decisions
- Measure the organization's improvement throughput (how much value is being captured per cycle)
Produced in
- Office — Updated when opportunities are prioritized and the transformation portfolio is adjusted
Key Principle
An organization that does not track its improvement pipeline does not know how much value it is leaving on the table. The Funnel makes the invisible visible — not just what we are improving, but what we are not improving because we chose not to.
Anti-pattern: The Leaky Funnel
Opportunities enter the Funnel but never advance through stages. The pipeline grows at the top (identified) and is empty at the bottom (realized). Value capture is estimated but never measured. The Funnel becomes a cemetery of intentions.
How to detect: Most opportunities in the Funnel are stuck in "identified" or "validated." Very few reach "executed" or "realized." The organization reports many improvement initiatives but cannot quantify captured value. The Office reviews new opportunities without closing old ones.
How to recover: Track conversion rates between stages. If opportunities stall at a specific stage, that stage has a systemic problem — perhaps validation criteria are unclear, or resources are not being allocated to move initiatives forward. The Funnel is healthy when opportunities flow through it, not when they accumulate in it.