Work Record

Embedding our visit methodology in this form has improved our service, particularly with new clients. We use it in what we call the JumpStart visit.

Zac

Zac Mutrux
Consultant and Commonist
CompuMentor

What do you mean by "embedding our visit methodology" I am not sure I see that unless it is the idea that you have a work plan, then actions, then next steps... Is this something that you include as a separate page?

I like the idea of the jumpstart visit, but it is unclear to me the methodology piece you are talking about in relation to the form.

Please clarify for the common man.

-Russ

Right. That wasn't all that clear, was it?

Things are surely different in other consulting firms, but for a good long while at CompuMentor the only paper document I have taken to a client site is the contract.

There might be a structure to a visit, but that structure wasn't well defined (AFAIK) or consistent from consultant to consultant. What took place during a visit wasn't well documented, either.

With the introduction of the Jumpstart service, that changed. Now we have a clear and consistent structure for an unscoped visit. It's the model you used to wish we had, Russ. I remember you saying something like "let's just show up and see what needs fixing!"

None of this drawn-out scoping business, no massive contract. The consultant shows up, listens to what is wrong, writes down what he will attempt during the next few hours, does as much of it as is practical, checks in with the client shortly before the end of the visit, and has the client sign off on the work record. There are probably some other steps in there.

So we have this nice structure for how a visit goes under this particular service model. If I headed out into the field without a cue card, I would inevitably forget some step. The work record is a cue for the consultant that there are certain steps to the visit (which helps with quality control), and provides a physical record of what took place during the visit.

Does that make sense?

So--this work record by itself is an artifact out of context. I'll see if there is more related to Jumpstart that we can contribute to a book.

Zac

Zac Mutrux
Consultant and Commonist
CompuMentor