The term 'operational diagnostic' gets used loosely in consulting. Some firms use it to mean a two-day workshop. Others use it to mean a six-month transformation programme. At Amplitude One, it means a specific four-week process: structured interviews, time-and-motion sampling, benchmarking, and a ranked findings report. This article describes what that looks like from the client's perspective.

Week One: Scoping and Access

The first week is administrative and relational. We agree on which workflows are in scope, arrange access to the relevant staff and systems, and conduct an initial briefing session with the leadership team. We also ask for any existing process documentation, even if it is out of date. Outdated documentation is often more revealing than current documentation, because it shows where the organisation has drifted from its own stated procedures.

Weeks Two and Three: Interviews and Observation

This is the core of the diagnostic. We conduct structured interviews with 20 to 30 staff members, from senior managers to front-line operators. The interviews follow a consistent format but leave room for the unexpected. We also spend time observing work as it happens, not just as it is described. There is almost always a gap between the two. Time-and-motion sampling runs in parallel, focused on the workflows identified in week one.

Week Four: Analysis and Report

We spend the final week analysing the data and writing the report. The report has two sections: a findings section, which describes what we observed without editorialising, and a recommendations section, which ranks each finding by estimated impact and estimated effort to address. We present the report in a two-hour session with the leadership team, then leave a week for questions before the engagement closes.

What the Report Does Not Include

The report does not include an implementation plan. That is a separate engagement. The diagnostic is designed to answer the question: what is actually happening and where are the largest opportunities? What to do about it is a decision that belongs to the client. We can help with implementation planning, but we do not bundle it into the diagnostic, because it requires a different kind of work and a different kind of time commitment.

How to Prepare

The most useful thing a client can do before the diagnostic begins is brief their staff honestly. Tell them why the diagnostic is happening, what we will be looking at, and what will be done with the findings. Staff who understand the purpose of the process give more useful interviews than staff who are guessing at our motives. We have found that transparency at the outset saves significant time in weeks two and three.

If you are considering an operational diagnostic and want to understand whether it is the right starting point for your situation, the Rapid Diagnostic Call is a 90-minute structured conversation for €350. We will give you a written summary within 48 hours.