Find where value is won and lost, before deciding what to change.
Phase 2 Value Map — Discovery & Audit
From £15,000 · about six weeks · prices exclude VAT
Your own people, across every function, map what customers or members really experience. Formalus then puts money against the moments that matter, wherever the evidence allows. The result is a prioritised value map, not a feature wish-list.
Where is value being won and lost, and which opportunities justify action?
Platform vendors usually start from their system. Strategy advisers rarely attach the economics. Value Map does both, cross-functionally, in about six weeks, so priorities are set by evidence rather than opinion, and before a vendor shapes the requirement.
The customer or member journey map
The journey from first contact to renewal or loss: every touchpoint, with the pain points and moments of truth chosen by cross-functional vote. Priority touchpoints get a standard deep dive: intent, expected value, current reality, owner, data needed and the future requirement.
The value map
Each moment of truth and pain point tied to a number in the management accounts wherever the evidence allows: value at risk, value at stake, cost to serve. The two maps combine into a heatmap of value against the effort to change.
An unanswerable question is itself a finding. Value Map does not assume the data exists; where it does not, the gap is logged and becomes a requirement.
Ten steps, in about six weeks.
The method used with Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, a current Formalus client, and repeatable in any of our three sectors.
- MobiliseWeek 0 · done in Value FocusThe sponsor charter, decision rights, data request and stakeholder map are agreed on your Value Focus day, so the six weeks start straight at interviews.
- Internal interviewsWeeks 1–3One-to-one interviews across every function that touches the journey, typically 15–20.
- Value questions and data auditWeeks 1–4A fixed set of commercial questions put to the business; every one it cannot answer goes into a data-gap register.
- Journey workshopsWeeks 2–4Three cross-functional workshops across the early, middle and late journey: confirm stages, identify touchpoints, vote, deep dive, write requirements.
- Touchpoint deep divesWeeks 3–4The standard template completed for every voted touchpoint.
- Customer or member voiceWeeks 3–5Depth interviews to test the internal view against what customers or members actually experience.
- External benchmarksWeeks 3–5Peers in your sector, plus subscription and retention-led comparators.
- Value mapping and heatmapWeeks 4–5Economics attached where the evidence allows; impact against effort; requirements consolidated.
- Senior validationWeek 5Leadership workshop and executive reviews.
- Readout and gateWeek 6The numbers behind the diagnosis, the heatmap, the data-gap register, quick wins and Phase 3 workstream charters.
The same method, with your sector’s journey and economics.
Mobile operators
Where in the journey retention spend is wasted, using the four groups of flagged customers. Early-life churn and spinners measured for the first time if they are not tracked today.
Journey: Discover → Join & Activate → First 90 days → Use & Top-up → Renew or Recontract → Save or Win back.
Multi-site retailers
What really happened to contribution across a recent set of promotions, or one category, and where approval, stacking and channel rules leak margin that the business cannot yet see.
Two journeys: the customer’s, and the promotion decision journey from plan to approval, execution and measurement.
Membership organisations
The moments where members stop recognising value, the first-year lapse pattern, and the services that do and do not sustain renewal.
Journey: Attract → Join → Engage → Realise value → Embed → Retain & Advocate.
What a value heatmap and data-gap register look like.
Illustrative examples, not client results. Your own map is built from your journeys and your numbers.
| Value question | Answerable today? | Why not | Becomes a Phase 3 requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| What share of new customers are spinners? | No | New SIMs are not matched to previously churned customers | Match new activations to churned customers |
| How many customers churn in month two? | Partly | Churn is reported monthly, not by tenure | Report churn by tenure cohort |
| What share of baskets stack promotions? | No | The till does not log every promotion applied | Capture every promotion applied per basket, in store and online |
| Which promotions added contribution? | Partly | Sales uplift is reported, not contribution | Post-campaign contribution report as standard |
One agreed map of the journey, and where the money is.
Every finding is labelled by the strength of its evidence: research-backed, practitioner-validated, client-validated or measured.
- Journey map and touchpoint inventory
- Pain points and moments of truth, by vote
- Touchpoint deep-dive pack
- Value questions and data-gap register
- Value map and heatmap
- Requirements long-list
- Quick wins to start now
- Phase 3 workstream charters
Each function holds its own picture of the customer, priorities are argued by opinion, and a vendor is shaping the requirement.
One evidence-labelled map of the journey and where the money is, and a short list of workstreams leadership has chosen, with every function heard.
Decision gate. Leadership approves the prioritised workstreams. If the value is not there, the recommendation is to stop, and you keep everything produced.
“The work identified and prioritised the biggest commercial opportunities, helping us focus on the areas with the greatest potential business impact. Michael then helped us shape the high-level commercial design for the future operating model, working back from the business outcomes we wanted to achieve so the commercial requirements were defined before technology decisions were made.”
One step in the Formalus Value Architecture.
You commit to one step at a time, never to the whole path. Each step ends with a decision your leadership owns.
- Free Value Signal Free AI Opportunity Assessment Is there enough commercial value to investigate? Free Get Your Free Assessment Sponsor agrees a Value Focus day
- Phase 1 Value Focus Executive Sizing Day How much is at stake, and is a Value Map worth it? £2,500 · one day, credited See Value Focus Sponsor signs the Value Map charter
- Phase 2 Value Map Discovery & Audit Where is value being won and lost? From £15,000 See Value Map Leadership prioritises the workstreams
- Phase 3 Value Blueprint Requirements, Specification & Redesign What must change, and is the investment justified? From £25,000 See Value Blueprint Board approval; baseline locked
- Phase 4 Value Assurance Support through the build Is the build preserving the value case, and are people working the new way? From £5,000 a month See Value Assurance Alongside: your technology partner builds Go-live; assurance complete
- Phase 5 Value Ledger Value Realisation & Optimisation Is the investment delivering attributable value? From £5,000 a month See Value Ledger The next justified Value Map
Is there enough value to map?
Start with a Free AI Opportunity Assessment. In 60 minutes we look at the commercial result you want to improve and whether it is worth sizing with your own figures in a Value Focus day, the step before a Value Map.
A free 60-minute executive discussion, followed by a concise written assessment.
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