Glossary
What is a diagnosis sprint?
A diagnosis sprint is a fixed, time-boxed engagement, typically 14 days, that finds the single bottleneck capping a business and hands back a concrete plan to remove it. No open-ended retainer and no generic audit: one constraint, one lever, one report you can act on.
Open-ended consulting has a built-in incentive problem: the longer it takes, the more it pays. A diagnosis sprint flips that. It is fixed in time and scope, so the only way to win is to find the real lever fast and prove it. The output is not a 90-slide deck, it is a short report that names the bottleneck, the mechanism behind it, and the specific moves to remove it.
The sprint is reductive on purpose. Instead of listing everything that could be improved, it isolates the one change that unlocks the most. That is harder than a full audit, because it forces a decision instead of a checklist. A founder leaves with clarity on where to aim, not a longer to-do list.
Done honestly, a diagnosis sprint carries skin in the game. If it surfaces no relevant lever for the business, the fee is refunded. That only works when the same team can also build the solution, so the diagnosis is written to be executed, not admired.
Frequently asked
- How long does a diagnosis sprint take?
- Typically 14 days. The fixed window is the point: it forces a sharp answer instead of an open-ended engagement that drifts.
- What is the deliverable of a diagnosis sprint?
- A concise report that names the single bottleneck, explains the mechanism behind it, and lays out the specific moves to remove it, written to be executed rather than filed away.
- How is a diagnosis sprint different from a consulting audit?
- An audit lists everything that could be improved. A diagnosis sprint isolates the one change that unlocks the most and commits to it. It ends with a decision, not a checklist.