Thinking of a career in consulting and wondering how to get started with a new client? As an IT Consultant, you’re often brought in by a company to solve a pressing problem or launch a new initiative. From Day One consultants are expected to hit the ground running, with little time or budget to waste.
As a consultant who specializes in IT operations, I have found a tried-and-true framework to make sure I am productive from Day One. It’s called the “30-60-90-Day Technique,” although you can make the three phases shorter or longer depending on the circumstances of your engagement.
The framework helps you focus your work in clear phases, with each successive time window building on the last. The actual details of each step can vary, but hopefully sharing some basics of my overall approach will help you use this technique to hone your consulting workflow.
Do Some Pre-Engagement Research
Before you begin your 30-day process, there is some preparation you should make time for, particularly if you haven’t worked for the client before. While your contract or statement of work outlines what you’ll be doing and who you’ll be working for, it’s a good idea to research the company to get a sense of the business and the culture.
You may have already done some research to land the engagement, but if not, there’s typically publicly available information you can access to scope out the company. Start with an online search for news reports or articles, check out the company’s website and annual report if they publish one and use LinkedIn to search your extended network for any connections that have worked at the company so that you can reach out to them for possible insights.
Try to get a feel for the company and its history. Are they well-respected? How long have they been around? Are they going through any large changes? Have they been through a recent merger or been acquired? What is the company vibe or culture?
First 30 Days
The first 30 days of the engagement consists of further information gathering from the inside, including listening, reading and further research. On Day One, you should meet with the primary client contact to get more details about the objectives and process. Ask for their help to understand the organization. Is it a deep organization or a flat one? Is there an org chart or online directory you can access to understand the hierarchy and org structure?
Determine who the primary stakeholders are for the initiative and line up meetings to speak with them over the next few weeks. Your client should be able to direct you on how to get on their calendars and hopefully can send a note of introduction to set the context for the conversation.
Start by having a 30-minute meeting with each stakeholder. That’s typically enough time for an initial conversation and if it goes long, you can always schedule a follow-up if needed.
Here are three simple yet effective questions that I typically use in this initial interview:
- How long have you been at the company and in this group?
This tells you how they came to be in their current position and can uncover insights about their career history which can give you sense for ‘how they tick.’ - What’s working well related to the initiative you have been asked to work on?
This tells you their opinion / feelings / perspective about the current environment. - What would you like to see changed or improved?
This tells you about their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the current state.
Be sure to let stakeholders know that you will be checking back with them with updates and any follow-up questions so that you can keep them engaged. Also ensure that you meet regularly with your client to let them know where you are in the process.
In parallel, review available company resources as you continue to absorb, learn, and listen. These will depend on what you are working on but could include the following:
- strategy decks
- budget materials
-
reports that include any relevant data analysis on the topic
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past and present goals and objectives for the relevant organization
If you are working with a particular technology or platform, review the multi-year roadmap if available. If you are working to optimize a portfolio, review the composition of projects within the portfolio and the current prioritization.
Being resourceful is key. Is the information you need in a project management system, in a spreadsheet or in peoples’ heads? Does a central repository or source system for the key data exist or do you have to go collect it before you can even start?
It’s kind of detective work at this point. The bottom line of the 30-day window is to learn, listen, listen some more, then read, and then read some more.
Within this phase and throughout the project the hardest thing is to not jump to conclusions and think you know how to fix the problem before you have all the information. From my experience, there’s often more to the story.
60-Day Window
After a month, as you go into the 60-day phase, you should begin formulating your actions for the initiative based on what you’ve heard and learned. You can start running some suggestions by your team and getting additional feedback from secondary stakeholders. It’s important to get all sides of an issue and, it bears repeating, not to jump to conclusions.
This is the time you also go back to the well—the key stakeholders you talked to earlier and indicated you would be checking back with for input on your ideas.
Not only can their feedback be valuable, but you need their buy-in to implement your recommendations, which will involve change. For people to accept change, they need to be bought into the process and convinced there are benefits for them and their teams. You want them to know you are actively listening to them so that you can build trust and pave the way for future adoption of the change.
Final 30 Days
The final phase of the 90-day framework focuses on documenting and communicating your actions and getting buy-in. You’ve outlined your detailed plan and have a timeline, milestones, options, and deliverables. Your materials should reflect how the client is accustomed to processing information, whether through exec level presentations, slides that include the client’s branding and format, project plans created in their tool of choice, or the completion of technical documentation templates.
With the materials drafted and reviewed by the team, you are ready to present the plan and recommendations to your client for input. Once their input is incorporated, typically there are additional stakeholder meetings, steering committee or executive board reviews of the recommendations in order to get to a decision on whether to move forward.
Once your plan gets the go-ahead, you may or may not stay on for the implementation. Sometimes the consulting work is done when you point the client in the right direction, and sometimes you have the ability to help the client see the initiative through to a successful finish.
Things to Remember
As you move through this process, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Again, don’t jump to conclusions.
- Be flexible. Course correct on your plan when needed. Don’t act as though it is set in stone.
- Rely on your emotional intelligence to size up stakeholders’ personalities and work styles to avoid conflicts.
- Steer clear of company politics.
- Listen and learn in every phase of the project.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Whether you are a seasoned consultant in need of a refresher or just starting out in your consulting career, this framework can help you navigate client engagements with confidence while building trust and consistently adding value. With the right approach, you can turn every client engagement into an opportunity for growth, not only for your clients but also for your consulting career.
— Maryann Burns is a Senior Consultant at Vizionara.
