REF: The MVP of AI transformation

I’ve been thinking about transformation a lot recently because… well… AI and while I’ve used it plenty for myself I’ve been struggling with the transformation of a whole organisation.

And I think this was my main blocker, starting to big. With this in mind I started dabbling with alternatives and created this acronym REF.

Result. Eliminate. Focus.

Most AI transformation advice tells you to think big. Build a comprehensive strategy. Map every department. Create governance frameworks. Six month rollouts.

This is why nothing happens.

REF is the transformational version of MVP.

Start with one workflow where you can show a result this week. Not next quarter. This week. Someone writes an email in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. That’s the result that changes belief.

Then eliminate whatever makes it hard to do again. Is Claude blocked by IT? Fix that. Do people not know it exists? Tell them. Is the prompt buried in a shared doc? Make it a bookmark. Eliminate friction until using AI is easier than not using it.

And focus means picking one thing. Not “transform customer service and sales and operations and HR.” Pick customer service. Or pick one team in customer service. Or pick one type of email that one team sends.

The paradox is that narrow actually spreads faster than broad. When one team gets a 10x improvement on something specific, other teams notice. They ask how. They want in.

Trying to transform everything at once means no one experiences anything changing.