The Use Case Inventory is the final Current State asset before turning full attention to innovation ideas and decisions. Assets such as Current State Process Flows contain the details to populate the Use Case Inventory and defend decisions about what to innovate. The Use Case Inventory is instrumental to prevent starting projects in the wrong order.

Some of this information is difficult to record. That difficulty should be a factor in your innovation ideas and decisions. Can innovation work proceed with this table partially completed? Yes. Can work proceed completely ignoring this table? Yes. However, if your organization intends to build a roadmap, scripts, or process flows, this table facilitates all these. This table improves the following:

• accountability (names)

• alignment (uncovering differences of opinion)

• transparency (the fact that it is documented)

• momentum (the modularity of the inventory reduces analysis paralysis and enables divide-and-conquer)

• emphasis (by prioritizing)

• straightforwardness (encouraging break down large activities into smaller, more manageable activities)

… and success being inevitable, because you are not ignoring the most acute customer points of pain.

Upstream Assets: Scorecard, Customer Experience Hierarchy

Downstream Assets: Change Log, Object Model