STRATEGY - CASE Scaling Readiness Diagnostic Assessment

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With clear impact, proven demand, and a strong understanding of the ecosystem, the next step is developing a nuanced strategy to achieve impact at scale.

Complete the six questions below and receive a customized report with your responses, potential areas of focus, and resources.

SCALING GOAL: Have you articulated why you are considering scaling and what goals you want to achieve?

BEGINNING: We have not begun to think about scaling yet. LOW PROGRESS: We are considering scaling our solution because internal and external stakeholders seem to want us to. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We feel there is a compelling need to expand the reach of our solution, and we have started articulating goals for scaling our work. HIGH PROGRESS: We have a well-defined scaling goal that has been vetted and agreed upon by our key stakeholders.

SCALING UNIT: Have you determined what is the unit of activity that you want to grow or scale, whether that be a product/service, business model, set of principles, etc.?

BEGINNING: We have not thought about our scaling unit. LOW PROGRESS: We have considered different unit models we could scale, but we don't have internal agreement yet on which model we should pursue. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We have a working hypothesis, based on evidence, of the best unit to grow or scale. HIGH PROGRESS: We know what the unit is that we want to grow or scale and have organized our operations around it.

ADDED VALUE: Can you articulate the unique value or competitive advantage of your solution? Is it more effective, cheaper, or better than other available solutions?

BEGINNING: We don't yet know what we should be comparing our solution to. LOW PROGRESS: We're not sure how to articulate what makes our offering unique compared to other solutions. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We understand the other solutions available, have hypotheses about how our solution is better, and we are beginning to test those hypotheses. HIGH PROGRESS: We have data or evidence that our solution is unique and better by some objective measure (e.g., efficacy, cost, desirability) than other solutions available.

SCALABILITY: Is your model context-specific or is it more generalizable? Does it require specific factors (e.g., a charismatic local leader, specific supplier, legal context) that might be hard to replicate?

BEGINNING: We haven't considered which factors are critical to our model, and which may be hard to reproduce in other contexts. LOW PROGRESS: We have identified which factors may limit our ability to achieve impact in other contexts, but we haven't yet identified how to refine the model to mitigate those factors. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We have started to refine our model to make it adaptable as we scale. We have articulated the internal and/or external factors that are critical for our model to continue to work, given the specific scaling pathways we plan to pursue. HIGH PROGRESS: We have made our model as adaptable as possible to the new contexts we will encounter as we scale, without losing our unique value-add. We have identified factors that must be true or environments we must create to set our specific scaling pathways up for success.

SCALING PATHWAYS: Are you aware of the possible pathways to impact at scale, beyond growth? Do you have a hypothesis about which pathway is most appropriate for you?

BEGINNING: We are not aware of pathways to scaled impact beyond simply growing our overall organization. LOW PROGRESS: We are aware of a number of pathways to scale our impact, but we haven't yet considered which pathway will meet our scaling goals. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We have a working hypothesis of which scaling pathway makes sense, but we still need to get feedback on this from key stakeholders. HIGH PROGRESS: We have tested the pathway we plan on taking with internal and external stakeholders, and feel reasonably confident it is the right course to meet our goals at this time.

ITERATION: Do you have a process for testing your scaling plan and evaluating the results of those tests? What test results (key metrics) would lead you to consider strategic pivots?

BEGINNING: We haven't considered how we may need to iterate on our scaling plan over time nor the key metrics or targets we would need to track. LOW PROGRESS: We understand that scaling is often iterative and that we need systems in place to test our plan as we implement, but we don't yet know what those tests are. MEDIUM PROGRESS: We have created hypotheses about our scaling plan and ways to test those hypotheses, but we haven't articulated the key metrics or targets that could help us realize we need to step back, reevaluate, and potentially pivot. HIGH PROGRESS: We have articulated a clear plan to test our hypotheses and make sense of the results of those tests. We have established key metrics to track and quickly call our attention to issues, so we can reevaluate and pivot if necessary, and are tracking those metrics in dashboards or other regularly vetted reporting tools.