When a project is in the fog, a cross-functional adviser can steer the team toward productivity and clarity, bringing creativity, flexibility, and expertise encompassing multiple functional areas and domains.
Your project is in the fog — Systems don’t work, people don’t communicate, product sales are lagging, competitors are expanding, promises from vendors haven’t materialized, projects run late and over budget, clients are disengaged, teams have disbanding due to attrition.
You’ve installed a swat team, hired specialized consultants, conducted off sites,produced a vision statement and a five year plan and a pitch deck, but the results are still not there. You crave clarity but don’t know how to find it. Does any of this sound familiar?
If you are…
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- launching a new company
- building a new product
- creating a product pricing model
- entering a new market
- implementing a new technology system
an experienced cross functional adviser will help you find structure within the chaos, and help you identify, communicate about, and realize value from your project.
A cross functional adviser is smart, nice, and agile, with experiences that span many companies, roles, and business domains. They come with war-stories from product design, software development, sales meetings, contract negotiations, client-engagements, client-exit interviews, trade-conferences, marketing campaigns, and successful and unsuccessful project implementations. They advise on strategy, and drive tactical projects that bring these strategies to life.
THE VISION
From concept to execution, a cross-functional adviser provides a sharp set of eyes that help you see the clarity beyond the fog.
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Be guided by experience, make better decisions faster
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Hear from an objective, compassionate observer
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Build strong consensus among stakeholders based on quantifiable facts
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Increase returns, increase the value of your organization
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Increase the chance of success of your project
THE PROCESS
A good cross-functional adviser leads you through the project step by step:
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Discover the structure that underlies the organization. Frame the question; Quantify the answers; Communicate the results
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Design systems that embody this structure and that offer stability and sustainability that you can rely upon. Clarify goals; Present a road-map; Dig into details
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Deliver results, ensuring that great ideas turn into reality and that tactics support strategies. Build strong teams; Deliver incremental results; Communicate; Celebrate successes
THE MAGIC
A really really great cross-functional adviser has skills and talents that they bring to every engagement:
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Quick to learn the business domain so as to speak like a native
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Quick to read the relationships within a project team and to understand process issues and opportunities
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Facile with details in finance, technology, math, and business domain
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Listens well and speaks diplomatically, with “strong opinions loosely held”; always open to hear others’ opinions and make on-the-fly directional adjustments as new information becomes known
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Engages the team by circling in from generalities to details — beginning with a broad view so as to invite all opinions, and then insisting on quantifiable evidence in order to settle on a belief
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Brings a healthy understanding of the constraints of time, money, people, and politics
- Creative, informative, and engaging when presenting findings through any channel or media
Please reach out to me to find out how I can help!