Pre-implementation review
On the table is an offer or a recommendation: a new system, a platform, an AI implementation, a major campaign. It was prepared by someone who will earn money from carrying it out. We check it before the contract is signed.
“We have a recommendation and a budget. Should we go ahead?”
Note for decision-makers
- A clear recommendation: go or no-go. With the conditions that must be met and a list of what the original recommendation did not check.
- The decision is costly to reverse, and the recommendation was prepared by someone who will earn from implementing it.
- The decision has already been made and what is needed is a justification for it. In that case this review is a cost. We say so before the contract is signed.
- What would have to turn out to be true for the board to walk away? If nothing, there is nothing to check.
How this differs from the review a vendor offers
A pre-implementation review is usually done by the company that then sells the implementation. The document almost always concludes that implementation is worthwhile, because the contractor only earns money on the implementation.
Independence from the contractor. The report can be shown to any vendor, including the one whose recommendation we have just checked.
When companies turn to this
- An offer for a system or platform that nobody inside the company can assess.
- A recommendation from a department that gains budget or people from the change.
- An AI implementation priced higher than the team can justify.
- A product rebuild that the next several years depend on.
- A large media purchase or a campaign before it goes live.
Three sources of evidence
Each of them on its own gives false certainty. Only together are they enough for a decision.
Where the difference lies
We work on raw data, not on other people's conclusions. An average across a whole study can hide a deterioration in a single task. A new version is sometimes better overall and worse exactly where nobody looked.
The report has a fixed order: observation, source, conclusion, recommendation. Description always comes before assessment, so the conclusion can be disputed without questioning the data.
How the work proceeds
We establish what would have to turn out to be true for the decision to change.
We read the existing recommendation and the data it rests on.
We fill in the missing sources: audit, interviews, quantitative research.
We compare the results and show where they diverge.
We deliver a recommendation with boundary conditions.
What you can count on
An assessment independent of the contractor and of the hypothesis already adopted. The recommendation follows from the data.
What the price depends on
Whether all three sources are needed or some of the material already exists. The number of scenarios to check and the sample size. Availability of users for interviews. Whether the report is going to a board meeting or to the team.
Let's talk about your case.
The shortest route is one sentence about what you are trying to decide. We will get back to you on whether and how we can help.
Tell us what decision has to be made and by when.
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