Why I’m Spurning Traditional Consulting

Michael Muse
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

I get a lot of questions trying to clarify what situations are a good match for my services. The answer lies in what kind of problem you’re trying to solve.

You should hire a Traditional Software Consultant when you know exactly what you need to do with your software, for example:

  • an exact replica of a system from your last company
  • migrating from one ERP to another with feature parity as a primary goal
  • building a home for well defined or even legally mandated process
  • pursuing table stakes for your industry
  • need a set of hands for your feature factory

You should hire Muse Operations when you need help figuring out how your custom software will look in six months:

  • scaling a company in hypergrowth
  • complex/messy/innovative operational challenges
  • reenvisioning workflows or processes
  • shifting priorities
  • unknown future state

Why?

Because the approach should match the problem.

I’ve italicized what I’m doing differently than traditional consulting.

Traditional style vs. Muse Operations

Waterfall-style project management

Modern, flow-based project management


5+ hrs of initial discovery, avoiding new changes to SOW

Continuous, high touch discovery (usually via Slack)


100–300+ hr, ~$50k+ SOW, enforced minimum

~25hr, $6k SOW with client option remove/add scope


Feature-centric deliverables

Outcome-centric deliverables


Estimate sandbagging

Best efforts estimation


Hi-res work sequencing & deadlines

Open-ended priority, wary of deadlines


Incentive to scope creep

Incentive to earn follow-on work


Certified career admins are hammers to which everything looks like a nail

Career operators and product managers have learned to use iterative, humble approaches to new problems

Are you doing something innovative?

Need to customize some software to do it? Drop me a line at: inquiries@museoperations.com

…or check out museoperations.com.

and if you read email newsletters:

Michael Muse

Written by

Operations Software Consultant: @MuseOperations. Formerly Product Operations @ManagedByQ

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