Method
Listen, Diagnose, Recommend
Every engagement follows the same three phases. The sequence matters: recommendations made before the diagnosis is agreed tend to be adopted politely and abandoned quietly.
- Phase 01
Listen
Understand the company as it actually is, including where accounts of it disagree.
- Structured conversations with each executive, held separately.
- Review of the market record: site, sales materials, product documentation, board and investor materials.
- Customer and prospect input where access allows, focused on the words buyers use unprompted.
- Assembly of the points where internal accounts diverge from one another and from the market's.
- Phase 02
Diagnose
Name the decision the company has been deferring, and what deferring it has cost.
- A written diagnosis of the actual problem, which is frequently not the presenting one.
- The specific trade-off the company has avoided making explicit.
- Where the current story breaks: which audience, which moment, which claim.
- A direct read on which options remain genuinely open.
- Phase 03
Recommend
Put a defensible position in front of the leadership team and pressure-test it.
- A recommended position with the reasoning and the cost of holding it.
- The language that follows from the decision, at the level of substance rather than campaign copy.
- Working sessions in which the leadership team argues with the recommendation until it holds or changes.
- What must be true in the next two quarters for the position to be real.
Terms of the work
What Makes an Engagement Work
These conditions are stated before an engagement begins, because engagements fail on them far more often than on analysis.
What we ask of you
- Candid access to the executives who own the decision.
- Willingness to hear a diagnosis that differs from the brief.
- The authority in the room to make a trade-off, not only to discuss one.
- Permission to speak with customers where confidentiality allows.
What you can expect from us
- A direct opinion, stated in writing, including where we think you are wrong.
- No expansion of scope in search of additional work.
- Confidentiality by default; client identities are not published.
- A clear ending, with the decision owned internally.
Questions leadership teams ask
- How long does an engagement take?
- Most run between six and twelve weeks. The variable is executive availability and access to customers, not the volume of work produced.
- Who needs to be involved?
- The chief executive, and whoever owns revenue and product. If the decision can be overturned by someone who was not in the room, the engagement will not hold.
- What do we receive at the end?
- A written diagnosis, a recommended position with its trade-offs, and the working language that follows from it. The more important output is a leadership team that can defend the decision without us.
- Do you implement?
- No. The practice stays upstream. Where useful, we brief the internal team or external partners who will execute, so intent survives contact with production.
- What if we disagree with the diagnosis?
- That is a normal and useful part of the second phase. The diagnosis is written to be argued with; if it survives the argument, it is worth acting on.
The Next Important Decision Deserves More Than Another Deliverable
If your company has outgrown its original story—or leadership is not yet aligned on what comes next—start with a focused strategic conversation.