Working with us

We firmly believe in building win-win relationships of trust with our clients. We also know that trust is built on results. Further, we realize it’s not possible to know everything you need and give you one big estimate upfront before we start getting our hands dirty and seeing what you are facing.

Additionally, we’re “end-to-end consultants”. Meaning, we work with you from setting the initial strategy and prioritization for the engagement, through the scoping, planning, implementation, testing and training to final handover.

In other words, we don’t want to guess what it will take and what it will cost to meet your objectives. Guessing is too risky for you and us.

And so, we use a systematically phased “pay as we build” approach. Each phase has a specific function, scope, and deliverables. These will be clearly stated and agreed upon in the scope of work and pricing for that phase. The completion of one phase enables us to collaboratively create a scope of work and pricing for the next phase, which removes any “guesstimating”.

Additionally, each phase employs agreed-upon metrics to identify the gap between the current state and the target and to track progress (including the ROI for that phase as far as possible).

In most cases, the ROI more than covers our fee, which reduces your risk and gives you the confidence to seek budget approval for the next phase.

Typical project breakdown

Initial Consultation(s) (free of charge)

These remote conversations allow us to get to know each other while learning your goals and constraints. We’ll share and discuss ways to approach your challenge, and the degree of strategic scoping you need to get started.

Based on those discussions we’ll prepare for you a short proposal for the Strategic Scoping Phase.

Strategic Scoping (fee)

In this phase, we’ll meet with relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts to discuss your objectives, metrics, resources, timeline, and constraints, and organize this data into a structure conducive to decision-making.

We’ll then collaboratively prioritize objectives and select those to be addressed during the current engagement. Based on this, we’ll work together to determine the scope for the next discovery phase.

Depending on your needs, we might scope several projects that will run in parallel. Alternatively, we might scope one large project consisting of several sequential mini-projects. Even with a single project, it might be possible to bring individual components “online” before the entire build is complete.

The above information will be used to prepare the proposal for the Recipe Formulation phase.

Recipe Formulation (fee)

In this phase, we’ll collaborate with your stakeholders and subject matter experts to create the recipe for building your Growth Engine. A recipe lists all the ingredients necessary for creating a Growth Engine that will achieve the stated objective (see here for a more in-depth discussion of how Growth Engines are built).

This is an intensive discovery phase that will include interviews, discussion meetings, documentation reviews, data collection and analysis, metrics selection, and problem-solving focusing on root-cause analysis.

Once the recipe is completed, we’ll prepare a proposal for the Blueprint Creation Phase.

Blueprint Creation (fee)

In this phase, we’ll collaborate with your stakeholders and subject matter experts to create the blueprint for building the Growth Engine according to the recipe. A blueprint is a plan that contains all the details necessary to build, implement, test, and certify the Growth Engine. The concept is the same as preparing the plans to build an office tower or an airplane. It will take a lot of work, but doing this work correctly is the key to the success of the implementation and testing phase.

The Blueprint will consist of the required sub-plans, such as project management, change management, scheduling, training development, systems implementation, and other plans necessary for a successful Growth Engine build and launch.

When you’re happy with the blueprint, we’ll prepare a proposal for the Build & Test Phase.

Build & Test (fee)

In this phase, we’ll collaborate with your people and any subcontractors to build the Growth Engine following the Blueprint. Metrics will be in place to monitor progress and identify any issues as they occur. Rigorous project management, change management, and risk management will be employed to ensure people and systems are ready on time.

We’ll continue working with you until the Growth Engine is functioning as intended. This includes conducting performance evaluations, making any necessary adjustments, and ensuring your people can reliably operate the Growth Engine.

There may be some windup meetings and discussions as we compile lessons learned and other notable observations.

Next Build discussion (free of charge)

Most clients have a list of priorities they want to work through. So, when they get one Growth Engine up and running, they are keen to expand it or build and launch another one. In this case, we’ll enjoy continuing to work with you as we repeat the above process.