A scoped, paid first step
The FOCAL Diagnostic.
A short, scoped engagement that runs your real problem through our method and ends in a written read: what we would build, in what order, and what it would change. The operators in the room, not a sales team. Two weeks, brief to written read.
What you walk away with.
- The real problem, named. We find whether the problem in the brief is the real one. Often it is not, and that is the most valuable thing we can tell you early.
- A written read. What we would build, in what order, and what it would change. On paper you can take to your board, not a slide show that leaves the room with us.
- The operators, in the room. The senior people who would actually deliver the work. No pyramid, no junior team, no partner who sells and disappears.
- A clean decision. At the end you know whether to build with us, and exactly what that would look like. No retainer to start, no lock-in to continue.
How it runs.
Five moves, the same method we deliver by. Bounded to about two weeks, so you get a straight answer fast.
Find
We dig into the real problem with the people closest to it, and separate the symptom from the cause.
On the floor
We go where the work happens, the store, the data, the team, not just the boardroom.
Craft
We shape what good looks like and what we would build to get there.
Assemble
We sequence it: what to build first, what it depends on, what it changes.
Land
We hand you a written read and a straight recommendation. Then you decide.
A frequent case: the stuck AI pilot.
An agency or an internal team built you an AI prototype. The demo went well, then nothing for months. The Diagnostic runs its production audit: why it stalled, what it would take to wire it into your systems, govern it and run it for real, and whether it is worth it. You walk away with a written read and a frank recommendation, including the recommendation to drop it if that is the right call. The natural next step, if the pilot deserves it, is AI in production.
What it costs.
The Diagnostic is a paid, fixed-scope engagement, priced to the problem and agreed up front, so there are no surprises and no open meter. It stands on its own: no retainer to begin, and no obligation to continue once you have the read. If we are not the right ones, we will tell you in the first conversation and point you to who is.
Put a real problem in front of us.
A few lines is enough. We will read it ourselves and come back within two working days, from the operators who would deliver it.