The advisory and design service delivers efficient, high-impact, and results-driven engagements. Our approach is anchored in systems thinking, human-centered design, and data-driven strategies to advise and/or design a product, service, initiative, or enterprise.

Advisory and design may be part of the same engagement, or it might focus on one or the other. Many times, these two services blend into the same engagement, which is why they are described together. We will formulate the right type of service collaboratively in our planning discussions.


Advisory and/or Design engagements typically focus on:

  • Program and initiative strategy formulation

  • Process design or re-design

  • Job and task design or re-design

  • Educational and/or institutional partnership strategy and design

  • Human capital management design

  • Instructional design

  • Business model generation

  • Sustainability planning

  • Holistic technology design and implementation

Engagements typically flow in this order:

  • Needs assessment

  • Diagnosis of current state

  • Diagnostic data collection - may include surveys, interviews, focus groups, documentation review, organizational data reviews

  • Application of relevant frameworks, models, or tools (domain- and objective-specific)

  • Facilitated design and strategy discussions with leadership and stakeholders

  • Analysis and insights through discussions and facilitated sessions

  • Typical products: Briefs and/or artifacts that succinctly summarize key findings and recommendations, key design documentation

  • Targeted implementation support via email, video calls, or on-site if needed and as negotiated

Engagement delivery:

  • Discovery meeting to determine fit and scope project

  • Terms and contracting

  • Engagements may be all virtual, all in-person, or a combination of in-person and virtual, which consists of onsite meetings with some meetings done over video

  • All virtual engagements occur through facilitated video calls using online collaborative workspaces, curated visuals, and targeted data collection tools (e.g., online surveys or video interviews)

Timeframe: Usually 6-24 months, depending on project scope, goals, and availability