Onboard and embed into the client's context
29 primitives in this stage — 28 skills · 1 agent. Concept-stage catalogue, kept vendor-agnostic.
Research and assemble the competitive landscape →
"The client said they had no direct competitors. I needed to know whether that was true or just a founder belief before I gave any market advice."
Produce a first-pass digest of a core document →
"I got handed a 60-page investor deck and two years of board packs. I needed to know what mattered before I walked into the first session."
Generate the clarifying-question list from gaps and anomalies →
"The retention number in the deck doesn't match the cohort table. I want to know why before I build any view on this business."
Construct the business-model and value-chain map →
"I needed my own model of this business — not the one in their pitch deck — before I could trust my own advice."
Reconstruct the decision and pivot timeline →
"They'd tried this exact pricing model three years ago and pulled it. Nobody told me. I nearly walked into the same wall."
Synthesise the initial-read working hypothesis →
"I needed to commit to a view before the first real session — not to be right, but to have something to test against."
Design a calibrated listening-interview guide →
"I was about to ask the CFO what she thought of the CEO's strategy. I needed better questions than that before I sat down with her."
Structure raw interview notes into signal →
"I had three pages of notes from a 45-minute conversation. I needed to know what the signal actually was before it blurred."
Synthesise interview signal into a political power map →
"The org chart said the COO was the operating centre of gravity. The interviews said otherwise. The map made that explicit."
Probe for abandoned strategies and scar tissue →
"Nobody volunteers the story of what they tried and dropped. You have to know how to ask for it."
Flag draft advice that re-runs a settled argument →
"My recommendation was solid. It was also the exact thing the board had litigated for six months and buried. I needed to know that before I spoke."
Prep a fast read for an upcoming room →
"I had 10 minutes before the leadership team meeting. I needed to know whose reaction would matter and what not to open."
Reconcile new signals against the working map →
"I had the alliance between the two co-founders as solid. Then one meeting changed that. I needed to decide what it meant before I acted on the old map."
Derive the access-gap list from role and the meetings/systems you need →
"I was two weeks in and still not on the weekly ops call. I needed to be explicit about what I was missing before I could ask for it."
Draft the access and invite request messages →
"I needed to ask for three things from two different people. Vague requests get deferred; I needed messages that made the case."
Identify which people need an introduction and why →
"I kept hitting the head of product for data. He had no idea who I was or why I was asking. I should have fixed that on day one."
Draft the brokered-introduction request and warm-intro framing →
"I needed the CEO to introduce me to the CFO and two board observers. Asking is easy; making it easy for her to actually do it is the skill."
Draft the proposed operating model to confirm with the principal →
"We'd never explicitly agreed how we'd work. Six weeks in I still wasn't sure if my weekly note was being read or just filed."
Write up the agreed working model as a shared reference →
"We agreed it in conversation. Three months later we had different memories of what we'd agreed. I needed to have written it down."
Prepare the first-session agenda with calibration checkpoints →
"The first session sets the template. I needed it to be useful AND to tell me whether the format we'd agreed actually worked."
Diagnose course corrections from the first session and decide adjustments →
"The session felt off. I needed to know if it was the format, the attendees, or me — and decide what to change before we ran it again."
Surface and rank candidate first-contribution opportunities →
"I had opinions on five things. I needed to know which ones I actually had grounds for — and which were just noise dressed as insight."
Choose the move and the person who should hear it →
"I'd picked the right thing to say. I still needed to decide who should hear it and when — the wrong room makes a good point land nowhere."
Develop the contribution and anticipate pushback →
"I had a strong view. I needed to know exactly what I was claiming, what it rested on, and who would push back before I opened my mouth."
Calibrate framing, directness, and channel to the room →
"The argument was right. But I'd framed it as a challenge when I should have framed it as a question. Same substance, entirely different reception."
Interpret signals of how contributions were received →
"I wasn't sure if my advice was landing or just being politely tolerated. I needed to read the signals before I pushed any further."
Recalibrate tone, directness, and sequencing →
"The read said I was going too fast. I needed a concrete adjustment — not a vague note to be more careful — before the next contribution."
Judge whether credibility is sufficient to push deeper →
"I had a real view on the strategy. The question was whether I'd earned the right to say it yet — and whether the answer was 'yes' or 'not quite'."
Plan the escalation arc of contribution depth →
"I needed a trajectory, not just a next step. Where am I trying to be in credibility terms by month three? What has to happen in what order to get there?"