Guides & extras

How to use these guides across an engagement

The guides above are not meant to be read in alphabetical order. They follow the natural shape of a consulting engagement, and most readers get the most from them by picking the stage they are in right now. Here is one practical way to move through them.

Before any work is agreed

Early conversations are about fit and framing. The notes on retainer versus project models help you decide how open-ended the work should be. A retainer suits ongoing advisory needs, and a fixed project suits a clearly bounded problem. The ROI framing guide is useful at the same point. Agreeing on how value will be judged before a proposal is written avoids awkward debates later. If you are comparing several firms, the vendor selection matrix gives you a structured way to weigh criteria such as relevant experience, approach, cost model and cultural fit, so the choice is not made on presentation polish alone.

Scoping and contracting

Once there is a likely partner, the proposal template notes and the statement of work tips work as a pair. The proposal explains the thinking. The statement of work turns it into deliverables, assumptions, responsibilities and acceptance criteria. Many disputes in professional services trace back to vague scope, so it is worth reading both before anything is signed. If your organisation handles sensitive data, start the security review preparation in parallel rather than afterwards, because procurement and information security checks often take longer than expected.

Kicking off and running the work

The discovery workshop agenda, the stakeholder interview guide and the workshop room setup guide support the first weeks. Interviews surface the views people will not share in a group. Workshops then build shared understanding. For distributed teams, the remote engagement guidance covers meeting rhythms, documentation habits and response expectations that keep momentum without constant calls. Clients meeting in person can use the Seattle visit notes to plan travel time around the city's traffic and transit.

Making change stick

Recommendations only matter if they are adopted. The change management checklist is best opened early, not at handover. Identifying sponsors, affected groups and communication needs from the start makes implementation far smoother. For ongoing perspective, the newsletter briefings and the wider Insights section collect shorter reflections. You can also see how these practices play out in the case studies, or browse the full range of services they support.