Strategy Diagnostic
Find the bottleneck before you spend $50k fixing the wrong thing.
A two-week structured analysis of your digital stack — marketing, architecture, or both. Ends with a written document that names the specific bottleneck, ranks the fixes, and gives you realistic budget ranges for each.
Fixed price: $1,500. No retainer. No phase two. The document is yours whether or not you hire me for anything after.
Two slots per month. Reviewed within 48 hours.
You don't need another deck.
Most “strategy” engagements end the same way: a 60-page deck full of frameworks the team already knew about, organised into a roadmap nobody owns, billed against a retainer that runs another six months.
What the deck doesn't do is tell you which one of the seventeen things you're considering is actually the bottleneck.
The Strategy Diagnostic does that. It is two weeks of structured analysis on your specific situation, ending in a written document that says, in concrete terms: this is the bottleneck, this is why, this is the fix, and here is the order it should happen in.
No deck. No retainer. No “phase two.”
Built for a specific kind of founder.
The Diagnostic works best when:
- —You're running a business doing $1M–$20M ARR, or close to it.
- —You have a digital stack — site, analytics, infrastructure, or all three — that has accumulated debt over the years, and you're not sure which piece is the actual problem.
- —You've already had at least one agency or consultant produce work you weren't satisfied with, and you don't want to repeat that.
- —You're willing to share the data the analysis requires (analytics access, a few stakeholder conversations, the system docs that exist).
- —You want a written deliverable that lives outside my head, that you can hand to your team, and that you'll still be able to act on six months from now.
It's probably not the right fit if you're looking for an implementation partner, a long-term retainer, or a single answer in under a week. The Diagnostic exists to tell you what to do — not to do it for you.
The two weeks, in order.
DAYS 1–2 · KICKOFF
A 60-minute kickoff call. We'll cover what you think the problem is, what the team has already tried, and what success looks like. Afterwards, you'll get a short list of the data and access I need — usually analytics, a few system credentials, and a list of three to five stakeholders I'd like 15 minutes with.
DAYS 3–10 · DIAGNOSTIC WORK
I run the analysis. This is the bulk of the engagement and is async — you don't need to do anything once access is shared. I'll spend the time looking at three layers: the systems layer (architecture, performance, technical debt), the operational layer (workflows, data, measurement), and the strategic layer (positioning, signal, what the business is actually optimising for). One brief async check-in around day 7.
DAYS 11–13 · THE DOCUMENT
I write the diagnostic document. Twelve to eighteen pages. No framework theatre. Specific findings, specific recommendations, ordered by priority and dependency. You'll have it in your inbox before our debrief call.
DAY 14 · DEBRIEF
A 60-minute debrief call. We walk through the document, you ask the questions that come up reading it, and we close out the engagement. You'll leave the call knowing exactly what the next 90 days should look like — even if you don't hire another person to help you do them.
Specifically, in writing.
The deliverable is a 12–18 page document organised in five parts:
WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.
A plain-language description of the current state, written in language your non-technical stakeholders can read without translation.
WHERE THE BOTTLENECK IS.
The specific point of failure or compounding inefficiency that's producing the most downstream cost. Almost always one or two things, not seventeen.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.
The actual recommendation. Specific. Not "consider exploring." Sentences with verbs.
THE ORDER.
What to do first, what depends on what, what can wait. The ordering is usually the part that earns the engagement back on its own.
WHAT I'D BUDGET.
Realistic ranges for what the recommended work should cost — whether you do it internally, hire a vendor, or hire me. (You are not obligated to hire me. Most clients don't.)
$1,500. Two slots a month.
The price is flat. There is no discovery fee, no expansion clause, no rolling retainer.
Two slots are available per calendar month. When both are filled, applications go to the following month's waitlist. The capacity is real — I do this work alongside the architecture and strategy engagements that are already underway, and the diagnostic only works if I can give it the attention it needs.
If the timing doesn't work, the application form lets you request a future month.
Questions I get asked.
Early clients.
The Diagnostic is a formalized version of work I've done inside every engagement — the structured analysis that happens before any implementation. The format is new. The work isn't. Testimonials from early clients will appear here as the engagements close. If you want a reference before then, I'm happy to put you in touch with a former client from the architecture work.
Request a reference →Apply for a slot.
The application form takes about three minutes. I review applications within 48 hours and reply to all of them — yes, no, or “not the right month, here's when.”
If we're a fit, you'll receive a calendar link for the kickoff and a Stripe invoice for $1,500. The kickoff is scheduled within the same week the application is accepted.