/business-case

name: business-case
description: Build a complete business case for a product investment — strategic rationale, financial model, risk assessment, and recommendation. Use when you need executive approval for a major initiative.

Business Case

Build a compelling, rigorous business case for a product investment in 2-4 hours. This goes beyond pure financial analysis to include strategic alignment, market context, risk assessment, alternatives considered, and an implementation plan. Claude structures the case and runs the numbers. You provide the strategic judgment and organizational context that makes the case persuasive.

When to Use

• Requesting significant budget, headcount, or resources for a new initiative
• Annual or quarterly planning requires formal investment proposals
• Expanding into a new market, segment, or product line
• A major platform investment needs executive sign-off
• You need to justify continuing (or killing) a significant existing investment
• Board or C-suite review requires a structured proposal

When NOT to Use

• You only need the financial model — use Financial Analysis
• You're comparing build vs. buy — use Build vs. Buy (it includes its own business case structure)
• You're communicating tech debt specifically — use Tech Debt Communication
• The investment is small enough that an informal pitch or Slack message suffices

The AI-Native Approach

| Step | Time | Claude Does | You Do | |---|---|---|---| | Frame the opportunity | 20 min | Structure the strategic rationale and market context | Provide the insight and evidence that sparked this | | Model the economics | 30 min | Build financial model with ROI, NPV, scenarios | Validate assumptions with finance and engineering | | Assess alternatives | 20 min | Structure option comparison with trade-offs | Add the options you've already considered and ruled out | | Map risks and dependencies | 20 min | Categorize risks and propose mitigations | Add organizational and political risks | | Assemble the case | 30 min | Draft the complete business case document | Review, add executive context, rehearse the pitch |

Process

Step 1: Frame the Opportunity (20 minutes)

A business case that starts with "we should build X" has already lost. Start with the opportunity or problem, then build to the proposal.

I need to build a business case for [initiative].

The opportunity:
- What's the problem or opportunity? [describe in business terms, not technical]
- Who does it affect? [customers, internal teams, the market]
- How big is it? [TAM, affected users, revenue at stake, cost impact]
- Why now? [what changed — market shift, customer demand, competitive pressure, regulatory deadline]

Strategic alignment:
- Which company goal or strategic pillar does this support?
- How does this fit with our product vision and roadmap?
- What happens if we don't do this? [cost of inaction]

Evidence:
- Customer evidence: [feedback, churn data, win/loss, NPS]
- Market evidence: [competitor moves, analyst reports, industry trends]
- Internal evidence: [operational costs, team productivity, system limitations]

Help me frame this as a compelling strategic narrative — not "we should build X" but "here's the opportunity, here's what's at stake, and here's how we capture it."

Step 2: Model the Economics (30 minutes)

Build a financial model for this business case:

Investment required:
- One-time costs: [development, design, infrastructure setup, migration]
- Recurring costs: [maintenance, hosting, support, licensing]
- People costs: [headcount needed — new hires or reallocation]
- Timeline: [phases and when costs are incurred]

Expected returns:
- Revenue impact: [new revenue, retained revenue, expansion revenue]
- Cost impact: [savings, efficiency gains, avoided costs]
- Risk impact: [compliance, security, technical risk reduction]
- Strategic impact: [market position, competitive advantage — quantify where possible]

Model over [3 / 5] years. Calculate:
- Year-by-year cash flow (investment vs. returns)
- ROI, NPV (at [discount rate]%), IRR, payback period
- Break-even point
- Three scenarios: conservative, base, optimistic

For each assumption: state it explicitly, rate confidence (H/M/L), and note the source.

Step 3: Assess Alternatives (20 minutes)

Executives don't just ask "should we do this?" They ask "compared to what?"

Evaluate alternatives to this investment:

Option 1: Do nothing (status quo)
- What happens over the next [1-3 years] if we don't act?
- Quantify the cost of inaction (lost revenue, increasing costs, growing risk)

Option 2: [The proposed investment — your recommendation]
- Summary of investment and expected returns from Step 2

Option 3: [Lighter alternative — partial investment, phased approach, or partner]
- What would a scaled-down version look like?
- What do we give up vs. the full investment?
- Financial model for this option

Option 4: [Different approach — alternative solution to the same problem]
- How else could we address this opportunity?
- What are the trade-offs?

Comparison matrix:
| Criteria | Do Nothing | Full Investment | Lighter Option | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-year NPV | | | | |
| Time to value | | | | |
| Risk level | | | | |
| Strategic fit | | | | |
| Reversibility | | | | |

Recommended option and why.

Step 4: Map Risks and Dependencies (20 minutes)

Identify risks and dependencies for the recommended option:

Execution risks:
- Can we actually build this? (technical feasibility, team capability)
- Can we build it on time? (historical accuracy of our estimates)
- Do we have the right people? (hiring risk, key-person dependency)

Market risks:
- Could the opportunity disappear? (market shift, regulation change)
- Could a competitor get there first? (competitive timing)
- Could customer demand be overstated? (validation risk)

Financial risks:
- What if costs overrun? (model impact at 25%, 50%, 100% overrun)
- What i