Start-Right-30: The Smartest Way to Start Any Major Initiative
You have to define the initiative anyway. Do it once, do it properly, and eliminate as many failure points as possible in the first 30 days.
Before you sign statements of work, mobilise teams, or brief vendors, you’re already making the most important decisions: What exactly are we doing? Why? And under what constraints?
Start-Right-30 is a focused, 30-day, AI-augmented Phase-0 designed to give you a complete, board- and vendor-ready definition of your most important initiative — plus a clear Go / No-Go / Fix-First recommendation.
You’re Already Doing Phase-0. This Is How You Do It Properly.
Every big initiative goes through a definition phase, whether you call it Phase-0, discovery, shaping, or something else. The question isn’t if you’ll do it — it’s how well you’ll do it, and how many early failure points you’ll eliminate.
Typical Phase-0 is:
- A string of workshops and slide decks
- Different leaders using different language
- Scope that’s half-written and half-assumed
- Vendors paid to rediscover obvious context
Start-Right-30 turns that into a deliberate, disciplined process that gives you:
- Clarity on the real problem and value
- Genuine leadership alignment on what’s being attempted
- Clear scope, non-scope, and guardrails
- A decision-ready pack your board and partners can trust
What You Get in 30 Days
Start-Right-30 is built to answer three questions:
- What are we really trying to achieve and why?
- Is this initiative, as currently imagined, the best way to do that?
- If we go ahead, what will it take to succeed?
You’ll walk away with:
- A fully articulated Initiative Success Map (across 9 key stages)
- A clear problem statement and value narrative everyone can repeat
- Defined scope and non-scope with clear reasoning
- A stakeholder, dependency, and constraint map
- A first-cut risk and mitigation view
- A Go / No-Go / Fix-First decision pack for executives and board
- A clean brief for vendors / delivery partners so they don’t redo discovery
How Start-Right-30 Works
Step 1 – Tune In & Frame (Week 1)
We capture your current context, constraints, and goals in our Athena platform. We review existing documents, commitments, and expectations, and agree what “success in 30 days” looks like.
Step 2 – Explore & Expose (Week 2)
We run structured sessions with key leaders and SMEs, surface different narratives, and draft your initiative Success Map and brief.
Step 3 – Test & Refine (Week 3)
We challenge assumptions, play through scenarios and trade-offs, tighten scope and guardrails, and refine risks and dependencies.
Step 4 – Decide & Package (Week 4)
We converge on a clear Go / No-Go / Fix-First recommendation, create a decision-ready pack for your board and partners, and outline next steps.
Is Start-Right-30 Right for You?
Start-Right-30 is designed for high-stakes initiatives where getting it wrong would really hurt.
Ideal if you are:
- Planning a core platform change (ERP, finance, CRM, data platform, HR system)
- Leading a cross-functional operating model shift
- Owning a major regulatory or risk-driven programme
- Responsible for an initiative likely to consume serious budget and leadership attention
Why You Don’t Want to “Just Start and See”
If you skip a disciplined Phase-0, you risk:
- Discovering misalignment halfway through delivery
- Paying vendors to figure out basic context you already have
- Burning credibility with your board when assumptions unravel
- Locking into plans that your organisation can’t actually deliver
Start-Right-30 is about paying a small, focused cost upfront to avoid much larger, messier costs later.
Not Ready for Start-Right-30 Yet?
If you’re still building buy-in, you can start lighter:
Athena Pro – a personal AI co-pilot to explore and shape your initiative before you bring others in.
Free Athena – a no-cost way to experience the Success Map approach.
But if the initiative is important enough to run, it’s important enough to define properly. Start-Right-30 is still our recommended first real move.