Our operations, sales, and marketing departments are constantly fighting over our limited internal software development resources, each claiming their proposed AI tool is the highest priority for the company. How do we use the IDS process in our weekly Level 10 Meeting to objectively prioritize these AI projects without letting department bias hijack our annual plan?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for department heads to develop tunnel vision, with sales, marketing, and operations each demanding custom software tools that they claim are absolutely critical. If you try to fund every project at once, you will dilute your development resources and achieve nothing. You must use the IDS process in your weekly Level 10 Meeting to objectively prioritize.

When competing projects arise, place them all on your Issues List. During the IDS portion of your meeting, force each department leader to pitch their project based on a single metric: its impact on your V/TO annual goals.

First, identify the root problem. Is the bottleneck in lead generation, sales conversion, or service delivery?

Second, discuss the projects. Force the team to evaluate each tool based on its projected return on investment, its implementation timeline, and the strain it will place on your developers. Eliminate any project that does not directly support your current quarterly Rocks.

Third, solve the issue by ranking the remaining projects. The project that solves your biggest current operational bottleneck must be prioritized first, with all other projects tabled for future quarters.

By using this structured approach, you remove emotion and department bias from the decision. Your leadership team leaves the Level 10 Meeting aligned on a single, high-impact technical priority, ensuring your software developers can execute without distraction.