Independent Diagnostics & Recovery for Technology and AI Programmes
Fo the first time, you will know exactly what you are walking into.
The Situation
You'll recognise it if you're in it.
The programme has stalled. Milestones slip, the narrative holds. Dashboards show progress nobody believes. You need to know what’s actually happening — not what the deck says.
Confidence has broken. Between you and the delivery partner, the team and its leadership, or the board and the programme. Trust doesn’t return by itself.
A board conversation is coming. And the honest answer to “where are we really?” doesn’t exist yet. You have weeks, not months, to get one. What is it costing you not to know?
The shape of it
A fixed-scope diagnostic for mid-market organisations (200–2,000 people) with a technology or AI programme in trouble. Senior-led throughout, no juniors, no recovery theatre.
10–15
Working days, fixed scope and fixed price, agreed before work starts and protected. The sprint does not expand to fill the time available.
1
Senior lead, start to finish. The person who designs the diagnostic runs it. AI compresses the timeline; judgement leads.
3
Phases, with gates between each. Your team’s time commitment is named upfront. If access can’t be provided, the sprint doesn’t proceed.
Nothing made up
Every finding traceable to a document, a dataset, or a named conversation. Recommendations reflect what is genuinely achievable, not what anyone hopes to hear.
No recovery theatre
The sprint ends with a decision, not a dependency. Not a recovery plan that assumes the programme continues. Not a report that hedges everything. Honest over comfortable, every time.
Divergence is the findings
Where the plan and the delivery disagree, where interviewees contradict each other, that gap is usually the most valuable thing the diagnostic surfaces.
After the sprint
The sprint ends with a decision, not a dependency. What happens next depends on what it finds, and what you need.
1. Advise & Exit
2. Guide
3. Embed
The finding is clear and your team can take it from here. Deliverable handed over, engagement ends.
The path needs a steady hand alongside delivery. A structured, bounded advisory retainer, not open-ended.
The situation requires interim delivery leadership for a defined period, with a defined exit.
How we can help
Practitioners who have been in the room and turned failing projects around. Nau partners, Mark Schnauffer and Seb Skinner have been delivering successful technology programmes since 2006.
What it costs
Fixed for the sprint, at a senior advisory rate, agreed before any work starts, in the first conversation. No lengthy discovery, no elaborate proposals, no day-rate meter running. You know the scope and the number before you commit.
Describe what you're seeing when you book, and you'll get an honest read on whether a sprint is even the right call.
Not sure you need a sprint?
Start with a second opinion. Before you commit to that plan, business case or recovery proposal: three to five days, one senior reviewer, one written answer — is it believable? If the plan holds, the report says so. That’s the point.
