David A. Fields Consulting Group You want your consulting firm to continuously advance.
Every engagement you complete is an opportunity to improve; however, simply delivering high-quality on projects isn’t enough to up your game.
The giant door to improvement and growth opens when you devour end-of-project celebratory chocolates reflect on your consulting engagements.
But what, specifically, should you evaluate?
Or, as sophisticated, technical consultants are trained to query: what notions should you noodle?
The topics below can serve as your checklist for a retrospective.
The Consulting Engagement Retrospective Checklist
Client Acquisition
(Consider completing this part of the checklist immediately upon receiving approval on a consulting project.)
| Source of lead: | |
| Client’s Need and/or Want: | |
| Concerns, risks, and objections raised prior to close: | |
| Language that worked: | |
| Missteps along the way: |
| Implications for marketing, qualifying opportunities, Discovery, proposal development and negotiation: |
Complete the remainder of the checklist immediately upon conclusion of a contract or project, or at a predetermined time period if the engagement is ongoing.
Scoping
| Were the client’s ultimate problems, Want and/or Need, identified during Discovery? | |
| Was the client’s highest value problem identified? | |
| Was the amount of work involved accurately forecasted? |
| Implications for the Discovery process (i.e., questions to ask consulting prospects in the future): |
Approach
| What part of our consulting firm’s approach to this project could have been systemized, automated, delegated to a lower level, and/or outsourced? | |
| What could be improved to create higher value for clients next time? |
| Implications for approach: |
Models
| Were the models we used to frame/solve the client’s challenge accurate? | |
| How could the models we used be more compelling, memorable, and/or distinctive? | |
| What new models, frameworks, distinctions, and metaphors emerged? |
| Implications for conceptual models used in marketing, Discovery, consulting project execution and/or delivery: |
Client Experience
| Client remarks and/or our observations of the client experience at each stage: | |
| Pursuit | |
| Onboarding | |
| Execution (including management of missteps) | |
| Wrap-Up | |
(Note: if clients don’t remark positively on the experience, the client experience needs improvement.)
| Implications and improvement areas for client experience: |
Action Plan
| Based on the assessments above, what can we improve immediately? | What longer-term improvements will we prioritize and start working on over the next month? |
| 1. 2. 3. | 1. 2. 3. |
What other questions would/do you ask during a consulting engagement retrospective?
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Thanks for the article, David. I like to evaluate my ability in spurring adoption of action plans both with project sponsors and with those responsible for carrying out the work. Did I effectively make the case for the recommendation – did it demonstrate understanding of the necessary transformation, did it target the points of greatest leverage, did it most effectively utilize resources, did it make sense for those who know the work most intimately?
Those are great questions for a retrospective, Mike. Good on you for checking in with both levels of the organization, too. The sponsors and the rank-and-file are both important.
I appreciate your sharing your example with me and other readers, Mike!
Great questions for self-assessment! Thanks for sharing. I wish I had these questions years ago.
The good news is you have them now and don’t have to wait years more, Joe!! We’re all always learning, and I appreciate your feedback.
Have a blank sheet of paper labeled “Frustrations”. At any time, at any step of the project, if something frustrates you, no matter how small, write it down! Don’t analyze it then, but just note it. After the project, go back to it, and you’ll probably get some good ideas for improving your processes.
That’s a great tip, Praveen. We use a similar approach with a technology twist. There’s a streamdeck on my desk with a button that automatically opens up a Microsoft Form. The form is set up to capture the date and any other information I want (e.g., project), and an open field to type notes. It takes about 5 seconds to capture notes. It’s easy to capture notes on multiple different projects (or people) with a single process, and at the end, reporting all the notes about one project is an easy key-click too.
Capturing your frustrations is a great idea. I’m glad you shared your process and created an opportunity to exchange ideas on the implementation of a mid-project note-capturing mechanism.
Thanks for this, valuable perspective to work to improve
You’re welcome, John. I appreciate your posting your reaction.