A Data & AI strategy often begins with bold declarations - predictive models, automated workflows, and intelligent platforms that promise transformation. Yet months later, the business impact is elusive. Teams are still buried in manual tasks, and the promised future feels distant.
The disconnect isn’t ambition, it’s execution. And execution begins with a deceptively simple but powerful question:
Where is value getting stuck?
This post explores how to uncover the hidden friction points in your organization; the bottlenecks, blind spots, and inefficiencies that quietly erode performance. By identifying these pain points, you can build a strategy that doesn’t just look good on paper; it delivers.
What Is Friction - and Why It Matters
Friction is the resistance that slows down decision-making, disrupts workflows, and prevents data from driving action. It’s the invisible tax on performance.
You’ll find friction in:
- Manual handoffs between teams
- Outdated reports that don’t reflect current realities
- Siloed systems that don’t talk to each other
- Overloaded dashboards that confuse more than clarify
- Gut-based decisions made without supporting data
These aren’t just operational annoyances, they’re strategic liabilities. Every moment of friction is a missed opportunity to act faster, smarter, and more confidently.
The First Step: Shift from Brainstorming to Observation
Most organizations start with brainstorming sessions: “What use cases should we tackle?” But this approach often leads to generic ideas disconnected from real-world constraints.
Instead, start by watching how decisions are made today. The goal isn’t to imagine what could be better, it’s to understand what’s broken.
Key Questions to Ask:
- What decisions are made repeatedly across the business?
- What inputs do decision-makers rely on?
- Where do delays, errors, or rework occur?
- What data is missing or mistrusted?
This shift from ideation to observation is the foundation of a strategy that ships.
How to Spot Friction in the Wild
Finding friction isn’t a theoretical exercise, it’s boots-on-the-ground work. Here’s how to do it.
1. Shadow Real Decisions
Spend time with the people making decisions. Watch how a planner schedules jobs, how a salesperson sets prices, or how a technician triages alerts.
Capture:
- What information they use
- When and how they access it
- What slows them down
- What they ignore or workaround
This firsthand view reveals the true complexity of decision-making and where it breaks down.
2. Measure the Drag
Quantify the inefficiencies. Look for:
- Rework: How often are decisions reversed or corrected?
- Wait time: How long does it take to get the needed data?
- Errors: What mistakes are made due to incomplete or outdated information?
- Missed opportunities: What could have been done better with the right insight?
Translate these into financial terms. For example:
- A 3% reduction in unplanned downtime might save \$420K.
- A 1.8-point increase in win rate could drive \$280K in revenue.
This isn’t just about identifying problems, it’s about sizing the prize.
3. Map the Data Landscape
Once you understand the decision, map it to the data that informs it - or should.
Assess:
- Availability: Is the data accessible when needed?
- Quality: Is it accurate, complete, and timely?
- Latency: How fresh is the data?
- Trust: Do users believe in it?
This step helps you understand what’s missing and what needs to be fixed to support better decisions.
Tools to Organize Your Findings
As you uncover friction, document it in ways that drive action.
Friction Ledger
Create a ranked list of bottlenecks with estimated financial impact. This becomes your strategic backlog.
Example entries:
- Maintenance triage: Reactive decisions leading to 3.1% downtime on lines 4–6. Estimated impact: \$420K.
- Price assist: Manual pricing approvals slowing sales. Potential lift: 1.8 points in win rate, \$280K value.
Opportunity Briefs
For each friction point, write a short brief:
- Problem statement
- Target KPI
- Stakeholders
- Initial feasibility
These briefs help align teams and sponsors around what matters most.
Narrow the Focus: From Friction to Action
Once you’ve built your friction ledger, it’s time to prioritize.
Select:
- 5–12 high-leverage opportunities for your strategic portfolio
- 1–3 use cases for near-term delivery
Criteria to consider:
- Business impact
- Feasibility with current capabilities
- Urgency and visibility
This focused approach ensures you start with wins that matter and build momentum from there.
Why This Approach Works
Finding friction isn’t just a diagnostic, it’s a strategic unlock. Here’s why it’s so powerful:
1. It Grounds Strategy in Reality
Instead of abstract goals, you’re working with real decisions, real users, and real constraints. This makes your strategy credible and actionable.
2. It Builds Trust
When teams see that you understand their pain points, they’re more likely to engage, adopt, and advocate for the solution.
3. It De-risks Delivery
By starting with observable problems, you reduce the chance of building something no one uses. You’re solving for known pain—not imagined needs.
4. It Creates a Flywheel
Each win makes the next easier. As you remove friction, you unlock capacity, insight, and momentum. Success compounds.
A Real-World Example: Maintenance Triage
Let’s say you observe a maintenance team and discover:
- Decisions are based on static schedules
- Alerts are ignored due to overload
- Downtime is rising
You map the decision to available sensor data and find:
- Latency in data access
- No predictive modeling
- No prioritization logic
You estimate:
- A 3.1% reduction in downtime = \$420K
- Early detection of bearing wear is the key driver
You create an opportunity brief:
- Problem: Reactive maintenance
- KPI: Unplanned downtime
- Stakeholders: Ops, Maintenance, Data Science
- Feasibility: High (data available, model straightforward)
This becomes your first product—and your first win.
From Friction to Flywheel: What Happens Next
Once you’ve found the friction, the rest of the strategy loop kicks in:
- Connect what matters: Link the opportunity to a product and capability roadmap.
- Activate people: Design for adoption, not just delivery.
- Engineer the foundation: Build just enough infrastructure to support the product.
- Deliver ROI: Ship, measure, and prove value.
- Multiply: Standardize what worked and apply it to the next use case.
Each step builds on the last. But it all starts with finding the friction.
What “Good” Looks Like in Six Months
When you start with friction, here’s what you’ll see:
- Leaders asking, “What’s the next product?” not “When will the platform be done?”
- Demos showing workflow improvements - not just dashboards
- Teams sharing a vocabulary for data, decisions, and value
- Weekly shipping becoming the norm
- A handful of products showing compounding value (financially measurable) and new teams lining up to get on the rails
Final Thought: Don’t Guess - Observe
If you take nothing else away, take this:
Don’t start with what you want to build. Start with what’s broken.
Find the friction. Quantify the upside. Build a product that solves a real problem. Then do it again.
This is how you turn strategy into motion and motion into momentum.