An Opportunity Profile (OP) is the result of a one month research and discovery effort to 'flesh out' an opportunity to a point where a decision can be made about doing a full blown assessment. The Profile still focuses on indicators rather than evaluators but it starts to bring in knowledge and information about technology feasibility, potential solutions, competitive landscape and specific community members and organizations.

Profiles are created after both the OP research and the OP working session.

An Opportunity Profile is presented as a four page writeup following the template below:

Opportunity

The opportunity summary tells the story of the opportunity. This is a one to three paragraph overview of the need, including some quantification if available. The last sentence or paragraph should concisely summarize the opportunity (need or potential).

Value Evidence

This section presents the highlights of why a solution to this opportunity would be valuable. It should include a summary of the quantitative and qualitative evidence for why this needs matters. What are people spending to fix the problem? What is the estimated cost and nature of their workarounds to accommodate the problem? Do they acknowledge that something is wrong at all? What might their world be like if they had a solution to fill this opportunity?

Ecosystem/Community

This section presents a summary in both test and bullet format of the value ecosystem for this opportunity. Who are the relevant parties that would receive benefit from a solution addressing this opportunity? Who are the players that might influence adoption? If this OP leads to an assessment, the what communities of practice should we seek to engage to understand motivation for adoption of a solution?

Potential Solutions

What would be a desirable solution? There is no need here to enumerate the one and only approach, but, in terms of effects, what would an ideal solution provide? What are some alternatives, based on the known different types of adopters?

Evolvers/Prompts

What were the debate prompts used in the OP working session? Each should be captured here and stated as the relevant question at the center of the debate (not as a statement supporting one side or the other in the debate).

Need to Know

What areas left us thinking? Were there any blank spots in the research map? What contradictions were spotted? What surprised us that we still don't understand?

Shaping Profile

If the OP is to go on to assessment, what should be our starting point for exploration? This section reflects the teams initial inclination. It is not a boundary definition for the assessment, but rather a portrait of what we believe to be most valuable place to start.