How Do Independent Consultants Help Clients Solve Problems? (The 101 Guide)
The mechanics of solving a problem are relatively easy to learn. The ability to implement the solutions is the real challenge.
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The Problem Solving Process
This process works not just for clients - but for any problem you want to solve.
When a client approaches you, it’s typically because there’s a problem they want to solve. It’s often a problem they don’t have the skills, knowledge, or resources to solve themselves - thus they want your help.
Define the Problem. The first step is to already invest considerable time to define the problem. Most of the time client’s have a broad idea that something is wrong but you need to translate that into very specific pain points. This is often undertaken as part of the sales process but can be part of the project as well. You should be able to:
Articulate the problem in simple language. Get past all the verbose discussion of the problem and ensure you can summarise it in clean, simple, language.
Explain the impact of that problem in the most specific way possible. What is the immediate impact of the problem right now? Who does it impact and how?
Highlight the scale or extent of the problem. From small to minor what are the long-term impacts of the problem is it not resolved? How does this problem fit into the larger picture?
You should be able to write out a clear problem statement at this point of one or two paragraphs explaining what the problem is and how you’re going to solve it.
Gather Information. To solve almost any problem you usually need to gather quantitative and qualitative data. One of the first things you should do is find out if the problem is a spike or a slope.
A spike problem is usually a technical problem. Something suddenly changed which has caused a sudden problem. These are usually problems where you’re looking to identify and fix the issue.
A slope problem is usually a ‘people problem’. This means people have changed and what used to work no longer works so well.
You typically want to support your data gathering efforts with qualitative information. This typically means surveys and interviews to fill in the blanks.
Data can give you a pretty good idea of where to look to solve the problem, but you always need to speak to people to understand the minutia of the issue. Direct interviews with people closest to the issue is usually the best way to understand it.
Identify the Root Cause. A root cause analysis (as we should all know by now) is essentially asking ‘why’ repeatedly to drill down to the real cause of the problem and not simply the symptoms. Almost every problem you encounter is a symptom of the real problem. If you can identify the real problem, you will solve the issue.
So whenever you encounter ‘the problem’ keep asking ‘why’ and gathering research along the way to find the real cause(s) of the problem.
It’s only when you’ve identified the root causes of a problem that you can develop possible solutions which might solve the problem. You might be surprised how often people ignore this step and begin guessing at solutions to the problem.
Generate Potential Solutions. This is the part where you begin developing possible solutions to the root cause of the problem. Sometimes this involves creativity - you might genuinely be able to come up with some unique, novel, approach to solve an issue which no-one has thought of before. Far more often, however, this involves research.
Either way, the steps here include:
Researching which other organisations have solved these problems. If you’ve been undertaking regular calls with people in your industry you should have a good understanding already of how people have solved issued in your field.
Make sure you ask on these calls not just how they solved the problem(s), but also the vendors they used, what they learned about the process, and what they should have done differently if they could start again. You want information at this stage which you’re not able to find on a search engine.
Reviewing the processes which could solve the problem. Go through the processes which aren’t working and look for improvements which could be made to rectify the issue. The root cause of most problems is a process issue which needs to be fixed.
Brainstorm a list of potential solutions. Don’t settle on the first idea you find here. There are problem a variety of solutions to solving a problem so you want to make a list of them and then decide which might be the right approach for your client.
At this point you should have a good list of options to work from. Now we need to prioritise them.
Prioritise Solutions. Now you can work with the client to assess and evaluate potential solutions to the problem. Typically here you want to evaluate the solution by three factors.
Feasibility. Can the client feasibility implement the solution? Do they have the resources, ability, and the control to be able to implement the solution within a given time frame?
Effectiveness. If they did implement the solution, how effective would it be? Would it simple prevent the problem for a short-amount of time or would it fundamentally prevent the problem from ever arising again.
Consequences. Are there any consequences if you implement the solution? How would this impact other departments, internal relationships, and the experience customers might face?
You should be able to prioritise your solutions into a top two or three list which are fully explained and detailed.
Gaining Alignment On The Decision. The next step is to build the internal support and alignment to implement the solution. If you’re brought all the key stakeholders on the journey with you then this part is easy. If you’re starting from scratch it’s going to take a lot more time (and be more perilous).
Speak to each key stakeholder individually and get their feedback on the solutions. If you want support for solutions, don’t raise it in a big meeting, but take the time to speak to each of the major stakeholders individually and solicit their feedback. Incorporate this into the solutions.
Create a simple slide deck with up to ten slides. This should summarise the problem in a single slide or two and then present each option. Storytelling skills certainly help here. The options should include the trade-offs and your recommended option.
Solicit a decision. The next step is to ensure the decision-maker makes a decision. You might need to address questions, alleviate concerns etc…but eventually you should get to the decision you need. Sometimes a collaborative workshop can help get the decision. Other times, it helps to create a default decision and let people say if they don’t want to pursue that option.
Ultimately this is a process of ensuring the right person takes the decision and everyone understands the decision, the reason for the decision, and how the decision will impact them.
Create an Action Plan. Once the decision has been made (or often before it) you begin developing the complete action plan. This is the step by step process to implement the solution.
The action plan will typically include things like:
GANTT Chart timeline.
Roles and responsibilities of the project team.
Selected vendors to help implement the plan.
Costs at each stage of the process.
Examples of best practices etc…
Good project management skills are incredibly important at this stage. It’s also not uncommon for organisations to hire consultancies to help them make the right decision and then take responsibility for the action plan as it often requires someone internally to assign people to roles within the team.
Implement the Solution. This is where you put the plan into action. It’s hard to prescribe how to do this well this as it can take so many forms depending on the plan. However, some of the common areas include:
Leading the project working group on weekly meetings.
Ensuring each aspect of the plan is implemented to specification.
Identifying and resolving any issues which arise.
Ensuring lessons learns from peers are considered here.
Monitoring progress and making changes as needed.
The two biggest aspects of the implementation phase in my experience are leading the working group each week to keep things on track and tackling unforeseen issues which arise. Every single major project has unforeseen issues. You need to be able to tackle them as they arise.
Evaluation of outcomes. The final step is to evaluate the outcome of the project. This evaluation will change considerably by the type of project. Sometimes there are clear, objective, quantitative measures of success you can use. For example, did sales increase as expected or customer satisfaction improve? In these kinds of projects you should how and what you’re measuring before you begin implementing the solution.
Other times you might use qualitative measures of success. For example, did the project meet the specification outlined by the client at the beginning of the project? A critical part of using qualitative measures is turning the initial project requirements into an evaluative checklist before you begin.
To be honest, it’s not common for the consultant who helped the client undertake the work to also measure the outcomes. But it does happen - often when someone within the organisation needs to justify their spend.
Updates and iterations. It’s relatively common for a consultant to be repeatedly invited back into a project to update and improve things over times. We have clients where we work with them once or twice a year to perform analyses, updates, and more.
It’s important to have a system here for keeping in touch with former clients to provide updates and iterations on the solution.
Often new opportunities emerge which present new opportunities to clients. Or we might be invited to stay involved with a project over a long-period of time to continually add expertise and guidance on any issues which can arise.
You don’t need to rigidly follow every step of this. Every client project is unique and it’s common for some clients to have already undertaken some of the work themselves. Often they only need help with a handful of the steps above or to evaluate potential solutions they’ve already generated.
What matters though is when you come into any project you’re able to follow a process which will help you implement the solutions which will help your clients.
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