Articles in Operations
What Tools Does an Engagement Manager Actually Need?
The honest 2026 EM toolkit: an AI assistant, a CRM, a PM system, time tracking, contract help. Mostly the same stack as 2020 plus Claude. Here is what is still missing.
What Is Professional Services Automation? A Plain-English Definition
What is professional services automation? The standard PSA terms (realization rate, billable utilization, engagement margin) each hide something operators need to see.
What an Engagement Manager Actually Does (And the Authority They Need)
Every consulting firm has an engagement manager. What they actually do varies by firm. Here is what the title should mean, and why authority matters.
Building an Institutional Memory Engine
Retrospective lessons learned are dead. The architecture that captures institutional knowledge before it walks out the door: engagement graph, decision archive, pattern library.
The Hidden Costs of Bad Estimates
Why most consulting projects come in over budget, and the Phase 0 move that prices a real estimate instead of fiction. Two stories, one playbook.
The SOW Process Is Broken at Most Firms. Here's What Replaces It.
A standard SOW should ship in 1 to 3 days; complex deals up to 1 to 2 weeks. Three-week cycles mean your team is grinding, not running a long process. Why, and what the fix actually is.
What PSA Software Actually Is (And Why The Category Is Aging Out)
PSA software is bookkeeping infrastructure dressed in operator clothes. The real category, where it stopped evolving, and what a system of action looks like in its place.