#consulting (25 links)
- Franchising has quietly made countless Americans rich economist.com
Incentive parallels with consulting.
- Another about face on productized services linkedin.com
Today it's so easy to spin up an AI solution to a problem. The temptation then is to sell that as a product. Now your inbox is filled with pitches for AI products, but just like back in 2005, what clients really want is someone to work with them, advise them, figure out solutions for their unique situations.
- Let It Burn - by Zoe Scaman - Musings Of A Wandering Mind zoescaman.substack.com
And the stuff that does go out? It’s going to look less and less like big bureaucratic holding companies and more like ragtag groups of brilliant minds. Strategists and creatives and makers who can be assembled for a project, who can move fast, who aren’t carrying the overhead of a Soho office and seventeen layers of account management.
- Advising Clients Ethically — 2Bobs 2bobs.com
Whether you call yourself an advisor or consultant (or not), David has seven core ethical principles that should govern advisory work.
This is great.
- Ask HN: What would you do for developer experience | Hacker News news.ycombinator.com
Has some great comments around “talk to people” and “don’t impose”.
- The importance of defining terms on every project, and how to agree them gathercontent.com
A look at the importance of shared vocabulary for projects with some non-tech world examples and showing how digital teams can benefit from this.
- The unfortunate math behind consulting companies longform.asmartbear.com
Hiring even one person creates a lot less profit than you’d think, and launching a product rarely works out.
Via Popular.
- Giving a Shit as a Service - Allen Pike allenpike.com
I used to puzzle over why potential clients who reached out to me always seemed to get more interested in hiring us if I tried to dissuade them by asking challenging questions. I think the biggest reason is that pushing back demonstrated that I care. If you email 4 software studios for a quote and 3 say “Sure, here’s a quote” but the 4th says “Hm, we certainly could build it but we can’t be sure about cost without knowing X and Y, and here are some other concerns we’d have” then the 4th is going to seem like they give a shit.
- The Strategic Independent tomcritchlow.com
A book - serialized free online - about the art and science of independent consulting.
- How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class theatlantic.com
Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities.
- Win-win consulting medium.com
Ideas on how to survive unpleasant projects as a consultant
- Growing One's Consulting Business training.kalzumeus.com
This is, far and away, the most important lesson to learn as a consultant. People who are unsavvy about business, like me in 2009 or like most freelancers today, treat themselves like commodity providers of a well-understood service that is available in quantity and differentiated purely based on price. This is stunningly not the case for programming, due to how competitive the market for talent is right now, and it is even more acutely untrue for folks who can program but instead choose to offer the much-more-lucrative service "I solve business problems -- occasionally a computer is involved."
- IR35 contracts & risk: 10 things to be wary of when signing a consultancy contract :: Contractor UK contractoruk.com
"Another point to be aware of is the difference between signing a contract with a client to "supply a worker" to perform services and signing a contract to directly perform services. Different liabilities will arise under each form of contract and there may be arguments that your limited company is acting akin to an agency when "providing personnel" and consequently subject to unexpected regulations and tax legislation."
- Why Software Projects are Terrible and How Not To Fix Them | Sealed Abstract sealedabstract.com
"I can find troubled projects, swoop in and save them through sheer competence, and save the day. This is probably the biggest single lie a developer can tell himself." Honk.
- Blogging Innovation » How to Hire and Manage Consultants business-strategy-innovation.com · Archived on
Useful from the other side i.e. how to be hired as a consultant and not suck.
- The Management Myth - Magazine - The Atlantic theatlantic.com
The world of management theorists remains exempt from accountability. In my experience, for what it’s worth, consultants monitored the progress of former clients about as diligently as they checked up on ex-spouses (of which there were many). Unless there was some hope of renewing the relationship (or dating a sister company), it was Hasta la vista, baby. And why should they have cared? Consultants’ recommendations have the same semantic properties as campaign promises: it’s almost freakish if they are remembered in the following year.
"Partners have little or no incentive even to investigate non-fee-producing options. Therefore, open source or lower cost, more out-of-the-box CMS solutions are rarely if ever offered as possible solutions. In fact, my experience found that more times than not, the Big 5 partner already knew exactly which CMS solution she was going to pitch before she walked through the client’s door. This was something that never ceased to amaze me, but the lesson here is to beware of software recommendations from any Big 5 firm." No shit.
Via alastc.
- Home - - ||| Digital Design Consultancy and Production for Human Beings ||| - - MakeMode makemode.co.uk
Interesting-looking agency/consultancy type thing.
If you are a freelance or small Web design firm, I have an uncomfortable question to ask you: are you thinking too small?
- Anil Dash: Pay By The Hour dashes.com
...sometimes I get asked for advice on how to price one's goods and services.