The goal of the preparation step is to figure out what to focus on.

How do we do that? Recall our obsession with value. We want to direct as much energy and focus to the most value-creating problems. Therefore, we want to focus efforts on fixing issues that a) has high impact, and b) can be improved.

The fastest way to get there is by triangulating three perspectives:

1. Sensitivity analysis: We break down the financials to understand the overall picture and look for any obvious issues. We then do sensitivity analysis to understand what the impact of improving various drivers are.

2. Value driver workshop: A collective brainstorming session where we populate all branhces with the collective ideas and perspectives of the group.

3. Interviews: where we go a bit deeper with each individual, depending on their expertise and focus areas.

When we triangulate across these activities, we will get a good idea of a) the value impact of the different drivers, and b) the likely potential of each value driver.

Ideally, we can already try to guestimate what the potential value creation can be given all of this information.