The consulting dossier
- Business brief: problem, owner, users, baseline and desired outcome.
- Process map: trigger, inputs, decisions, actions, systems and handoffs.
- Opportunity record: options, non-AI alternative, assumptions, ROI range and decision.
- Risk record: data classes, permissions, failure modes, human approval and rollback.
- Evaluation record: representative cases, expected result, actual result and reviewer.
- Operations record: owner, monitoring, costs, incident path and review date.
Start deliberately small
For the first assessment, a shared document and a spreadsheet can be enough. The discipline matters more than the software. Do not use a CRM, vector database or agent framework merely to make the engagement look advanced.
Northstar dossier starter
Engagement: Northstar quote-response assessment Sponsor: Managing director Process owner: Sales operations lead Problem hypothesis: quote follow-up is delayed and inconsistent Baseline needed: request timestamp, first response, quote sent, won/lost Data boundary: anonymised historical requests only for assessment Next gate: approve or reject a paid assessment scope Review date: set with the sponsor
Practical mission
Create this dossier starter in a local Markdown file. Mark every field you do not know as an assumption. Do not fill gaps with plausible invented numbers.
What you should be able to explain
At the end of this module, you should be able to explain why the business outcome comes first, when an assessment is the right offer, how an engagement advances through gates, and what evidence you need before proposing an AI system.