Discovery & Proposal

After our initial meeting to discuss possible focus areas, I begin with 3 to 8 confidential interviews with people in your organization who belong to different teams and levels.

• First, I will partner with one leader in your organization who will carry the torch on your end. Ideally, they are an engineering or product leader with authority, and I will support them directly.
• I provide a list of possible disciplines or roles, and we coordinate 45 min interviews to happen in one week.
• I draft an initial assessment to either confirm your focus areas or suggest alternatives. This assessment provides a high-level plan.
• I partner with your leader and any of their team members. We build a more detailed plan with goals, milestones, and metrics and get your comments.
• After incorporating feedback, we get to work.

Execution/Evolution

The execution phase is straightforward; we start breaking down our work and iterating toward our goals. Along the way, your team will develop practices that help them own this work in the long run, like status updates, communications, or proposal discussions. I prefer written artifacts, but these can be adjusted to your organization's work.

• We'll begin with an operational model and establish a cadence that will allow us to execute our plans.
  • This cadence includes my reporting to exec leadership or the board as necessary.
• If we bring additional support, we'll onboard and embed them in your team.
• My work will be primarily through your designated leader; they will carry the work forward with my support.
• We will adjust our plan as we learn and may choose to tackle different needs along the way.
• I may provide support via research and written artifacts, but I prefer to coach the leaders or teams to develop these themselves. Teach folks to fish, as they say.
• Depending on the engagement, I'll spend one or two hours per week with you.

Departure

As our engagement concludes, we'll wrap up any necessary tasks, I'll fade into the sunset, and you should be in a much better place than when we started.

• I'll likely depart before your team completes all work since the execution of strategic work is long-running. My focus is to help you develop a solid strategy, get your team on their way and step aside.
• We can discuss an advisory role with different terms if you need longer-term support.

Sample Work