Strategy and the board conversation stay with the strategy firm.
Alignment specialists
From strategy to software in use.
We keep the build matched to the recommendation until people are using it.
We work between the strategy team and the build team. We write down what the build has to achieve, remove the features that do not serve it, and stay on the program until people are using the system.
See how an engagement runsThe operating commitment
Before any code is written, we agree on one target: the percentage of the people this system is built for who are doing their work in it, measured on a set date after launch. Our engagement stays open until that target is met.
01The gap
The Strategy Alignment Gap
A program starts with a clear recommendation. Then hundreds of small decisions get made, each one reasonable, each by someone doing their job.
Somewhere in there, what is being built stops matching what was recommended. Every stage gate still clears. The program looks healthy from the outside.
The system ships. It works. People go back to the spreadsheet.
We find where the build moved away from the recommendation, cut it back to what actually moves the business, and stay until people are using it.
02Operational boundaries
Fixed Mandates
The recommendation is the partner's. We make sure it survives the build.
The client relationship stays with the partner who holds it.
Engineering management, production code, and integration stay with the build team.
The requirements, the record of what changed, and the adoption number are ours.
03The specialist work
Discover.
Design. Deploy.
A continuous alignment discipline from the first specification to proven production adoption.
Discover
We go through the program decision by decision. It ends with a one-page charter naming what this build has to achieve.
Design
Features earn their place against the charter or they come out. It ends with the cut list, the trace, and an agreed usage floor.
Deploy
We check the build against the charter every week. When it moves away from what was agreed, you hear it from us before the client does. Usage is measured from the first sprint, and the work ends when the number is met, not at go-live.
In practice
Precision in the handoff.
Every document we produce is written to be handed to a client sponsor without us in the room, and to still hold six months later when someone new proposes adding back what was cut.
04The deliverables
Our Deliverables
We manage alignment through four clinical artifacts.
01
Outcome Charter
One page naming what this build has to achieve, taken from the approved strategy. Each outcome carries an owner, a measure, and a definition of what using it looks like.
02
Cut List
What to build, and everything cut or deferred, with the reason tied back to the charter.
03
Trace Sheet
Each outcome followed through to the requirement that carries it, the feature that delivers it, and the measure that shows whether it worked.
04
Usage Floor
How many of the intended users are working in the new system, and how much of their work runs through it. Measured in production and written into the engagement terms. The work closes when the number is met or formally waived.
Gap Review
Two to four weeks, fixed fee. You get the charter, plus a written account of where the build has moved away from the recommendation and what that is costing. It stands on its own.
Design
The cut list, the trace, and the usage floor, set before the build starts while changes are still cheap.
Build Oversight
Weekly checks against the charter and usage tracking, closing on the usage floor.
Rescue
What is salvageable and what is sunk, when the budget is burning.
Embedded
Any of the above, working inside your team.