Approach

Most consulting engagements fail in predictable ways: scope that was never specific, a deliverable nobody owns afterwards, or a recommendation that could never have been implemented in the environment it was written for. The structure below exists to close those gaps.

1. Scoping conversation

An hour, no charge, no obligation. We want to understand the actual problem, which is often not the one in the initial email. If we are not the right fit — or if the work does not need an outside party at all — this is where we say so.

2. Assessment

One to three weeks. A fixed-fee, fixed-scope look at the current state: systems, data flows, team structure, and what has already been tried. It produces a written assessment you own outright, whether or not you continue.

This exists so that the larger engagement is scoped against evidence rather than a sales conversation. If the assessment shows the problem is smaller than expected, the proposal gets smaller.

3. Engagement

Scope, deliverables, timeline, and price are agreed in writing before work starts. Engagements run in two-week increments with a written update at the end of each — what moved, what is blocked, what changed.

Changes in scope are re-priced explicitly rather than absorbed silently. You should never be surprised by an invoice.

4. Handover

Every engagement ends with your team able to run what was built without us. Documentation, runbooks, and working sessions are in scope from the start.

We are available afterwards, but by design you should not need us.

What we expect from you

Engagements work when there is an internal owner with the authority to make decisions, honest access to systems and to what has failed before, and a willingness to hear an unwelcome answer.

Where those are missing, engagements tend to produce documents instead of change.