Two weeks, and you know what to do

What it can be about

Do we build this now, or will AI take it over?

There is a quote for a website or a system and nobody on your side can judge whether what is in it still holds up in five years. I sit on your side of the table: what to build now, and where you are paying for custom work that will be standard next year.

Are we picking the right agency?

Getting the brief sharp, asking the right questions, and comparing quotes on what is actually in them. You are not buying an opinion, you are buying someone who knows the trade from the other side.

Does this AI plan hold up, before budget goes on it?

I test it before the money is gone: what in here works, and what is a demo that will never reach production.

Why does nothing we try ever stick?

A few people with an AI subscription and nobody writing down what works. You hear what to secure, what to let go, and who should own it.

Where does our time go, and what can come out?

After growth, an acquisition or the departure of the person who knew everything: which work can go, which work can merge, and what stays human.

Your question not in the list? Then it probably fits too. The form is the same; give me a call and you will hear straight away whether I can do something with it.

What I do

1. 01I speak to five to eight people who do the work — not only to whoever owns it.
2. 02I spend half a day working alongside them. What people say and what they do always differ.
3. 03I write up my findings in a report: what I saw, what I make of it and what I would do.
4. 04We go through it together in an hour, with the people who decide.

Short enough to read, concrete enough to decide on. Not an advisory report you still have to translate into action.

What I look at varies

The four steps above are the same every time. Where I point my attention is up to your question. A few ways that can go:

None of that changes the price — not even if the question shifts along the way.

And after that?

That depends on what I find. Sometimes the answer is: start here, and I join you for a few months. Sometimes: you can do this yourselves, you do not need me for it. Sometimes: leave this alone for now.

So I do not sell the follow-up up front. What comes next we agree once the two weeks are done, in whatever shape fits then — two days a week, one day a week, or a day a month to keep it going.

Questions

01

Why look for two weeks first, why not just build?

Because otherwise I am guessing. In two weeks I know where things get stuck and what the people doing the work think of it. That usually saves more than the discovery costs — and you are not tied to anything.

02

What if it turns out you cannot help us?

Then that is what it says. I work for two clients at a time at most; a project that delivers nothing costs me just as much time as one that does.

03

How much of our time does this take?

An hour per conversation, half a day where I work alongside you, and one hour at the end to go through it. That is all.

04

Do we get a report?

Yes: my findings on paper, with what I would do and why. We go through it in an hour so your questions are answered straight away. Short enough to read — not an advisory report you still have to translate into action.

05

Do you work with our real data?

Usually not: I look at how the work runs, not at what is in your systems. If we do build something in those two weeks, we agree beforehand which data that happens with and where it stays.

06

Can it be done faster than two weeks?

The lead time is mostly the diaries of the people I speak to. If those fit into one week, it can be done in one week.