Highly practical advice: thank you for sharing. It frames and names a lot about the consulting proposition and process. Some are things I've learnt or done intuitively: however, it's really helpful to see them laid out this way.
The "left behind in the gold rush" stuff is very real for anything with AI in the subject line. Organisations still need to keep running and delivering all the stuff they were still doing a year ago. Many places to help out.
Agreed - and it means so many different things to different people...not least because it's an industry in its own right.
There's no denying its impact, much of which is yet to play out. A question I haven't answered yet is how much time to put to learning, applying and helping others navigate it and/or its implications...versus stepping aside for others to put in the hard yards with the knowhow, and to learn from them over time. It's just that "over time" can be a few weeks...
Great advice. I'm entering year 7 of what I call "sort-of" independent consulting journey (with the previous 12 years as an employee at various companies) and I experienced –and still experiencing— the influence of all these rules.
One thing I experienced is a sort of tail of disillusionment (for both clients and consultants alike) after a gold rush: I entered consulting during a peak of interest in agile "methodologies" a few years back, when basically anybody could make big money with a low barrier to entry.
It faded pretty quickly and even though I was aware of the exceptionality of the situation since the beginning, I'm still trying to figure out both niching strategies and de-niching strategies (e.g. focusing con team process and collaboration without using any "agile" monikers).
I completely agree about the gold rush disillusionment. It's very much like the Gartner hype cycle in that aspect. You often have to wait until it's entered the productive side to figure out what does and doesn't work.
I think the way we brand a service matters a lot. I'm not an expert in agile methodologies, but there are probably opportunities within that which could be interesting to explore.
One of the strategies I'm trying right now is to tackle a broader problem first (e.g. the plague of ineffective meetings) and inject agile practices only later (and if needed): it's s de-niching strategy because it implies going broader and not narrower but the disillusionment about agile is so strong that for me "agile" can't be a selling point, or the main selling point anymore (nor can "Agile for X" branding).
Another strategy I'm trying -and this one is a niching strategy- is to train, coach and mentor non-project managers into project management practices, especially with technical people like software developers, data scientist and data engineers.
I found out that there are sectors and industries in which many organizations run projects without project managers, with all the organizational problems that you can imagine, so I'll be testing a few assumption in this area too.
Highly practical advice: thank you for sharing. It frames and names a lot about the consulting proposition and process. Some are things I've learnt or done intuitively: however, it's really helpful to see them laid out this way.
The "left behind in the gold rush" stuff is very real for anything with AI in the subject line. Organisations still need to keep running and delivering all the stuff they were still doing a year ago. Many places to help out.
Thanks Claire, Glad to know this resonated with someone.
I think AI is such an interesting space. It's clearly not all hype - it's a gamechanger, but it's hard to know exactly how all this will play out.
Agreed - and it means so many different things to different people...not least because it's an industry in its own right.
There's no denying its impact, much of which is yet to play out. A question I haven't answered yet is how much time to put to learning, applying and helping others navigate it and/or its implications...versus stepping aside for others to put in the hard yards with the knowhow, and to learn from them over time. It's just that "over time" can be a few weeks...
Great advice. I'm entering year 7 of what I call "sort-of" independent consulting journey (with the previous 12 years as an employee at various companies) and I experienced –and still experiencing— the influence of all these rules.
One thing I experienced is a sort of tail of disillusionment (for both clients and consultants alike) after a gold rush: I entered consulting during a peak of interest in agile "methodologies" a few years back, when basically anybody could make big money with a low barrier to entry.
It faded pretty quickly and even though I was aware of the exceptionality of the situation since the beginning, I'm still trying to figure out both niching strategies and de-niching strategies (e.g. focusing con team process and collaboration without using any "agile" monikers).
I completely agree about the gold rush disillusionment. It's very much like the Gartner hype cycle in that aspect. You often have to wait until it's entered the productive side to figure out what does and doesn't work.
I think the way we brand a service matters a lot. I'm not an expert in agile methodologies, but there are probably opportunities within that which could be interesting to explore.
One of the strategies I'm trying right now is to tackle a broader problem first (e.g. the plague of ineffective meetings) and inject agile practices only later (and if needed): it's s de-niching strategy because it implies going broader and not narrower but the disillusionment about agile is so strong that for me "agile" can't be a selling point, or the main selling point anymore (nor can "Agile for X" branding).
Another strategy I'm trying -and this one is a niching strategy- is to train, coach and mentor non-project managers into project management practices, especially with technical people like software developers, data scientist and data engineers.
I found out that there are sectors and industries in which many organizations run projects without project managers, with all the organizational problems that you can imagine, so I'll be testing a few assumption in this area too.
I broadly like the approach and find it interesting. I think niching by target audience really matters and really helps.
Great advice, Rich. Very actionable and an issue where so many people get stuck.
Thanks Josh - hope you're doing well!