From Strategy to Action: Introducing the CX Challenge Cards (Part 2 of the CX Fundamentals Toolkit)

You’ve got a shiny CX strategy—now make it operational. The CX Challenge Cards give you 100 targeted “How might we…?” prompts you can cluster by Outcome or Journey Stage, then prioritise using market-relevant trends and real-world symptoms so teams can move from intent to execution—fast. 

Why this deck exists

Most organisations don’t fail for lack of slides or posters. They fail because nothing changes in the way teams decide, design, and deliver. The Challenge Cards are built to bridge the persistent gap between knowing and doing, so strategy stops living in a deck and starts shaping decisions. 

Core idea: Treat “problems” as design challenges and give cross-functional teams a shared, practical way to frame them. 

What’s inside the box
• 100 “How might we…?” challenges that cover a generic end-to-end customer lifecycle. Not every card will be relevant to you—but the right subset will accelerate framing and alignment.
• Blank cards for adding organisation-specific challenges.
• Instruction & anatomy cards, plus a workshop card describing a human-centred design flow for facilitating with the deck.

The Outcomes model (your north star for grouping)

To prevent overwhelm, every challenge is colour-coded into one of six high-level outcomes (e.g., Trust & Reliability, Ease of Use), with sensible sub-themes (e.g., consistency, technology). You can pull only the cards that ladder up to the outcome(s) you want to move—and ignore the rest. That makes prioritisation tangible and defensible. 

Example moves
• Want to improve Trust & Reliability? Filter for that outcome’s colour and discuss only those challenges.
• Need to reduce effort? Pull Ease of Use challenges and map where friction hides.

Card anatomy (the “so what?” on the back)

Each challenge is more than a nice sentence. Flip the card to get decision fuel:
• Outcome tag and Enabler references (connects back to Part 1’s CX Enablers).
• Trend signal & priority—e.g., data-driven personalisation is flagged as high priority given current market attention.
• Symptoms—operational indicators that this challenge matters for you (e.g., declining retention, negative NPS in retention moments, stagnant CLV).
• Journey stage—where the issue most likely manifests.
This turns a conversation starter into an aligned decision. 

Where challenges live across the journey

Cards are mapped to a simple, generic lifecycle to keep teams oriented without dictating your bespoke model:
1. Awareness & Consideration
2. Acquisition & Conversion
3. Onboarding & Activation
4. Usage, Engagement & Support
5. Growth, Retention & Churn Management 

You can filter by stage, group by outcome, or explore freely—whatever best suits the question at hand. The goal is shared language first, practical focus second. 

Three high-leverage ways to use the deck

1) From Enablers to Tactics (Strategy → Action)

If you’ve already aligned on CX Enablers (Part 1), use the cross-references to pull the matching Challenge Cards. This creates a traceable line from principle to project backlog. 

Flow
• Pick 1–2 Enablers you must move.
• Pull the linked challenge numbers.
• Prioritise by Outcome and Symptom severity.
• Convert top challenges into experiments with owners and measures.

2) Outcome-led framing

Start with the outcome you want (e.g., Trust). Draw only those cards. Rank by “impact vs. effort,” then define one “thin slice” experiment per top challenge. (Contrarian tip: kill the bottom three to create focus.)

3) Journey hot-spotting

Pick a problematic stage (e.g., Onboarding & Activation). Lay out relevant cards; tag each with the observable symptom you’ve seen in data or feedback. Prioritise the challenges that tie to measurable leakage (e.g., activation drop-offs).

A quick facilitator’s agenda (60–90 min)
1. Frame the objective (5 min): Which outcome or journey stage matters now and why?
2. Select the set (5 min): Pull Outcome or Stage-filtered cards.
3. Silent scan & dot-vote (10 min): Individually mark the 5 most resonant challenges.
4. Evidence check (15 min): For each top card, test the Symptoms against your data. If no evidence, park it.
5. Prioritise (15 min): Impact × Effort; keep 3.
6. Define thin slices (10–30 min): For each, draft one experiment: hypothesis, metric, owner, next step.
7. Commit (5 min): Who is accountable by when?

Pro move: Limit yourselves to three active challenges at a time. Throughput beats inventory.

Example challenge (to illustrate the mechanics)
• HMW: “How might we make additional fees (e.g., early termination) completely transparent so customers can anticipate and avoid unexpected costs?”
• Outcome: Likely Trust & Reliability (also affects Ease of Use).
• Symptoms to validate: Spike in billing complaints tagged “unexpected fees”; NPS dips around contract change; churn due to fee shock.
• Thin slice: Ship a fees calculator and proactive nudges before threshold events; measure delta in fee-related contacts and voluntary churn.

No deck yet? Use the CX Priority Explorer (free)

If you’re not ready to invest in physical tools, you can still work the method. The CX Priority Explorer mirrors the logic online: explore fundamentals, prioritise them intentionally, then receive a shortlist of practical tactics/outcomes to action—no strings attached. Use it to prep a workshop or validate your picks before committing teams.

Getting started checklist
• Choose one Outcome or Journey Stage to constrain the session.
• Pull only the relevant cards; hide the rest to avoid noise.
• Anchor discussion in Symptoms you can actually observe.
• Prioritise 3 challenges max; define a thin slice for each.
• Assign owners and first measurements (behavioural, not just attitudinal).
• Book a 30-min review in 2–3 weeks to decide: scale, pivot, or kill.

Closing thought

This deck isn’t about more “CX theatre.” It’s a practical scaffolding so your teams can spot the right problems faster and turn principles into behaviours customers can feel. Lay the cards out, focus the conversation, then ship.

CX Challenge Cards: Turn Customer Experience Strategy into Action