engagement-setup
Engagement Setup
Take a consulting engagement from "we just won this work" to "the engagement is running." This covers the first weeks of a consulting engagement: planning the kickoff, mapping stakeholders, designing discovery, and establishing the operating rhythm. For designing standalone facilitated sessions later in the engagement (strategy offsites, innovation sprints), see workshop-facilitation.
The goal is shared understanding and momentum, not a stack of templates. Every artifact here should earn its place by driving alignment or unblocking work.
Phase 1: Pre-Kickoff Preparation
Before anyone gets in a room, do the homework.
Stakeholder Identification
Build the stakeholder inventory early. You need it for kickoff invitation lists, interview scheduling, and knowing who can actually make decisions.
Internal stakeholders (client side):
| Name/Role | Function | Relationship to Initiative | Current Stance |
|---|---|---|---|
| C-suite / VP / Director / Manager | Sponsor / Decision-maker / Contributor / Affected | Champion / Supporter / Neutral / Skeptic / Opponent |
More from anotb/management-consulting-plugin
due-diligence
Conduct commercial, operational, financial, strategic, and technology due diligence for M&A, investment, partnership, or vendor decisions. Use when assessing acquisition targets, performing quality of earnings analysis, evaluating working capital, reviewing technology and IP, planning post-merger integration, quantifying synergies, or any situation requiring rigorous business assessment and risk identification.
3org-design
Design organizational structures, operating models, and role frameworks. Use when restructuring organizations, defining reporting relationships, designing job architectures, aligning org design with strategy, planning spans of control, or building transition roadmaps for new organizational models.
3project-closeout
Execute consulting engagement closure including deliverable handover, knowledge transfer, lessons learned, and administrative wrap-up. Use when completing consulting engagements, concluding transformation initiatives, transitioning from project to business-as-usual, or formalizing project wrap-up. Covers closure readiness assessment, client acceptance, knowledge transfer planning, retrospectives, financial reconciliation, and follow-on opportunity identification.
3proposal-development
Develop consulting proposals and manage the business development lifecycle. Use when analyzing RFPs, writing proposals, creating Statements of Work, building pitch decks, or articulating value propositions for client pursuits. Covers everything from initial opportunity assessment through proposal submission and oral presentation.
3workshop-facilitation
Design and facilitate consulting workshops including strategy offsites, design thinking sessions, innovation sprints, and discovery workshops. Use when planning client-facing facilitated sessions, conducting stakeholder alignment workshops, running prioritization exercises, or designing working sessions for strategy development. Covers agenda design, facilitation guides, pre-work, and follow-through.
3thought-leadership
Develop thought leadership content including points of view, white papers, case studies, and industry briefs. Use when building credibility through published content, creating assets for business development, developing reusable knowledge from engagement experience, or positioning a practice as a trusted authority on a topic. Covers the full arc from thesis development through research, structuring, drafting, and quality review.
3