Intake and scope the engagement
23 primitives in this stage — 22 skills · 1 agent. Concept-stage catalogue, kept vendor-agnostic.
Track outstanding inputs and chase the client until complete →
“I know three things are still outstanding but I keep forgetting to chase them — and now we're two days from the delivery start with a hole in our inputs.”
Draft the personalised welcome and what-happens-next brief →
“I just signed — now I'm staring at a blank email wondering how to explain the whole process without overwhelming them on day one.”
Prepare the kickoff call agenda and talking points →
“I've done a hundred kickoffs but I still wing the agenda — and then forget to confirm who the real decision-maker is until week three.”
Draft the post-call recap and client action list →
“The call felt productive but an hour later I can't remember who said they'd send the data file or by when.”
Draft the workspace orientation and access-confirmation note →
“I set up the shared folder but clients still email me attachments for weeks because they didn't realise they had somewhere to put things.”
Draft the sales-to-delivery internal handoff brief →
“The delivery team keeps asking me questions the sales conversation already answered — because nothing got written down before I handed over.”
Tailor the intake questionnaire to the engagement →
“Our standard questionnaire asks about things that are irrelevant for half our clients, and then they stop halfway through because the form feels like it wasn't written for them.”
Derive the required-document checklist from the methodology →
“I ask for documents using the same generic list every time and clients send me things I don't need while missing the two files that actually matter.”
Determine required systems and sufficient permission levels →
“I ask for 'read access to your analytics platform' and three weeks later we're still negotiating because nobody specified which platform, which account, or what role.”
Assess whether a missing item is material enough to delay handoff →
“A document is still missing on start day and I don't know whether to hold everything or just flag it and push forward — the answer depends on what that document actually feeds into.”
Check the client situation against the method's boundary spec →
“The client says their situation is a standard case but something feels off — I need a systematic check, not just my gut.”
Surface latent scope risks the surface mapping missed →
“We're two weeks in and it turns out the client's data hasn't been cleaned since 2022 — something we would have caught in intake if we'd known what to look for.”
Turn borderline items into targeted client questions →
“I know something is ambiguous but I'm not sure how to ask about it without making the client feel like the deal might fall apart.”
Judge each borderline item in or out given the client's answers →
“The client answered my questions but now I need to translate their answers into an actual scope decision I can commit to in writing.”
Write the client-ready confirmed-scope statement →
“We agreed on everything verbally but two months in the client thinks we're doing something we never actually committed to — because nothing got written down.”
Decide between re-scope, custom variant, and decline →
“The fit check is throwing red flags but I'm not sure if I'm being overly cautious or if this is genuinely the kind of situation that needs to go up the chain.”
Deliver the path-forward decision to the client →
“We've decided we can't do this engagement as-is and now I have to tell the client — without it feeling like we're abandoning them or that we missed something in the sale.”
Judge whether received inputs are fit for the delivery line →
“The checklist shows everything as received but the data file they sent is in a format the method can't process — and I only find out when we try to run step one.”
Triage surfaced gaps as resolvable, escalate, or block →
“Start date is tomorrow, three items are still missing, and I need to decide in the next hour which ones will actually stop us and which ones we can work around.”
Draft the targeted client chase or clarification message →
“I need something from the client urgently but if I send a panicked email it undermines their confidence in us — the message needs to be calm, specific, and make the stakes clear.”
Apply readiness criteria and render the go/hold verdict →
“I need to make the call on whether we start tomorrow but the decision feels like a judgement call when it should be criteria-based.”
Compile the delivery handoff brief →
“The delivery team is starting tomorrow and the relevant context is scattered across six different files, three email threads, and two Slack channels.”
Draft the intake-complete client confirmation →
“Delivery is starting but the client has gone quiet — they don't know if we've actually started or what they'll hear from us next.”