Find the Smallest Unit of Value 

Why minimum viable process beats minimum viable product 

Everyone knows about MVPs. Minimum viable products. Ship something small, learn fast, iterate. 

But when it comes to AI, most companies get this wrong. They try to automate too much, too fast. They aim for the AI marketing department instead of the AI blog outliner. They want the AI sales team instead of the AI meeting prep assistant. 

Then they wonder why their AI projects stall. 

The better question isn't "what's our MVP?" It's "what's our minimum viable process?" 

The Smallest Unit That Delivers Real Value 

Forget about building an AI system. Think smaller. What's the single unit of work product that, if automated well, would actually matter to your team? 

Not a workflow. Not a system. A deliverable. 

For a content team, that might be a blog post outline. Not the full post. Not the editorial calendar. Just the outline. 

For a sales team, that might be a pre-meeting brief. Not the full sales process. Not the CRM updates. Just the research document your rep reads before walking into a call. 

For a finance team, that might be variance commentary. Not the full report. Not the forecast model. Just the written explanation of why numbers moved. 

Small. Specific. Valuable. 

The Expansion Pattern 

Here's what happens when you nail the smallest unit: 

Stage 1 - The Outline: Your AI generates blog outlines. You refine the instructions until they're consistently good. Time saved: 30 minutes per post. 

Stage 2 - The Draft: Now you add drafting. The AI takes its own outline and writes the first draft. You learn it needs more voice guidance. You add examples of your best posts. Time saved: 2 hours per post. 

Stage 3 - The Edit: You add a review pass. The AI checks its draft against your style guide, your brand voice, your quality standards. Time saved: 45 minutes per post. 

Stage 4 - The Personalization: You add audience targeting. The AI adjusts tone and examples based on which persona you're writing for. Engagement up 30%. 

Each stage builds on the last. Each iteration reveals what the next iteration needs. You couldn't have built Stage 4 on day one because you didn't know yet what you'd learn in Stages 1 through 3. 

Function-Specific Examples 

Marketing: Start with email subject line generation. Then email body drafts. Then A/B test recommendations. Then campaign briefs. Then full campaign plans. 

Sales: Start with company research briefs. Then meeting agendas. Then follow-up email drafts. Then proposal sections. Then competitive positioning guides. 

Customer Success: Start with ticket categorization. Then response drafts for common issues. Then escalation recommendations. Then health score analysis. Then renewal risk reports. 

Finance: Start with expense categorization. Then variance explanations. Then forecast commentary. Then board deck narratives. Then scenario analysis. 

HR: Start with job description drafts. Then screening criteria. Then interview question sets. Then candidate summaries. Then offer letter customization. 

The pattern is always the same: start small, get it right, expand. 

The ROI Unlock 

Here's why this approach works financially: 

When you nail the smallest unit, you have proof. Real, measurable proof that AI can deliver value for your team. 

"Our AI blog outliner saves 30 minutes per post. We publish 20 posts a month. That's 10 hours saved monthly." 

Now you have a case for expanding. Now you have credibility when you ask for more resources. Now you have a template for what good AI deployment looks like. 

The companies stuck in pilot purgatory often have pilots that are too big to prove value and too small to matter. They're in a no-man's land of ambiguity. 

The smallest unit of value isn't a compromise. It's a strategy. 

Start Here 

Pick one deliverable your team produces repeatedly. Something that takes real time but follows a recognizable pattern. 

Build AI for just that deliverable. Nothing else. 

Perfect it. Measure it. Prove it works. 

Then expand. 

Master the unit. Scale the impact. 

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Learn to make your impact with this Guide to High ROI AI Use Cases. 

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EverWorker 

Do More With More