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💼ConsultingThorough

Client Kickoff Intake

Capture strategic context, stakeholder dynamics, and success criteria before engagement begins.

Sender: Strategy Consultant at Management consulting firm
Participant: VP of Operations — New client stakeholder
This is an illustrative example showing how Willit could be used in consulting. All names, quotes, and data are fictional. We never use real customer interviews for marketing purposes.
1

The Brief

The sender described what they wanted to learn. Willit's AI refined these instructions into a natural interview flow.

We just signed a new engagement with a mid-market logistics company ($80M revenue) to optimize their warehouse operations. I'm conducting intake interviews with 3-4 key stakeholders before our first on-site visit. This interview is with the VP of Operations who sponsored the engagement. I need to understand: - What triggered this engagement now? Why not six months ago or six months from now? - What does success look like in their mind — specific metrics, not vague "improvement" - Who are the key players I need to align with, and who might resist changes? - What's been tried before? Any past consultants or internal initiatives that didn't stick? - What are the political dynamics I should be aware of? Turf wars, competing priorities? - Budget and timeline expectations — are they realistic given what they're describing? - What keeps them up at night about this project? Don't let them stay at 30,000 feet. When they say things like "we need to be more efficient," push for specifics: which processes, which facilities, what's the gap between current and target state? Also important: listen for what they're NOT saying. If they avoid certain topics or people, that's signal.
2

The Interview

Willit's AI detective conducted a thorough interview with a VP of Operations. The conversation explored 5 topic areas through natural follow-up questions, adapting in real-time based on the participant's responses.

Understand engagement trigger and urgencyDefine concrete success metricsMap stakeholder dynamics and resistanceLearn from previous failed initiativesAssess budget and timeline realism
3

The Report

Willit automatically extracted structured insights from the conversation — scores, goal coverage, key quotes, and red flags.

Interview Scorecard

EngagementSentimentDepthQualityCoverageCoherence

Metric Averages

Engagement
92
Sentiment
71
Depth / Accuracy
87
Info Quality
90
Goal Coverage
85
Coherence
82

Summary

The VP of Operations is under board-level pressure to reduce warehouse operating costs by 15% within 18 months. A previous internal lean initiative stalled because the warehouse managers saw it as a headcount reduction exercise. The real trigger was a major customer threatening to leave over fulfillment delays. There's tension between Operations and IT over a WMS upgrade that got shelved, and the CFO is skeptical of consulting spend. Success is defined narrowly around two KPIs: order-to-ship time and cost-per-unit-shipped.

Goal Coverage

Covered

Understand engagement trigger and urgency

  • Major customer (22% of revenue) issued a formal warning about fulfillment SLAs in January, creating board-level urgency
  • Board set a 15% cost reduction target at Q4 review with 18-month deadline
Covered

Define concrete success metrics

  • Primary KPIs: order-to-ship time (currently 4.2 days, target 2.5) and cost-per-unit-shipped (currently $3.80, target $3.20)
Partial

Map stakeholder dynamics and resistance

  • Three warehouse managers are defensive about their current processes and saw the previous lean initiative as a layoff setup
  • CFO views consulting fees as wasteful and has publicly questioned the ROI at leadership meetings

Gap: IT department perspective on the shelved WMS upgrade was mentioned but not fully explored

Covered

Learn from previous failed initiatives

  • Internal lean initiative ran for 6 months in 2024, produced recommendations but zero implementation because warehouse managers weren't included in the process design
Not covered

Assess budget and timeline realism

Gap: Respondent deflected budget questions twice, saying 'that's more the CFO's domain' — may indicate uncertainty or political sensitivity around fees

Key Quotes

“When your biggest customer calls to say they're evaluating alternatives, that's the kind of wake-up call that gets the board's attention overnight.”
“The lean team came in with clipboards and the floor staff assumed pink slips were next. We lost trust we still haven't rebuilt.”
“I need a win within the first 90 days. Something visible. If we can't show movement by Q3 board review, this whole thing gets pulled.”

Red Flags

  • Budget sensitivity: VP deflected all cost questions — CFO skepticism may constrain the engagement scope
  • Previous initiative failure was due to change management, not analysis quality — same risk applies here
  • 90-day visible win expectation creates pressure that could compromise thoroughness

Follow-up Suggestions

  • Schedule direct conversation with CFO to align on budget expectations and ROI framework
  • Interview at least one warehouse manager before the on-site to understand resistance drivers firsthand
  • Request the lean initiative's final report to avoid duplicating analysis work

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