The Diagnostic: a two-week roadmap to make your company operationally ready for AI
The Diagnostic is a two-week assessment of how your company actually runs. We spend two hours with the owner, 15 minutes with each key person, and read your data and processes. You get a roadmap: what to fix first, what can be delegated now and where AI can take on work next. Then you run it yourselves, or with us.
Efficiency Sprint makes companies operationally ready for AI.
Who it's for
Owner-led companies from about $2M in revenue, where too much still runs through the owner. An owner can order it, and so can their #2 or a private equity partner who just bought the company or is getting it ready to sell.
How the two weeks go
We read the company three ways: how the owner sees it, how the team sees it, and what the systems show. Where the three disagree is where the work is.
The question I ask every owner is simple: if you took two months off, what happens? I ask it in every Diagnostic, and the answer tells me where to start.
Then I go to the data. I always need to see where your data comes from, so I can trust it. Management can give you beautiful reports, and your gut is telling you: no, it's not. That's usually where the real work starts.
| When | What happens | The owner's part |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Kickoff and two hours with the owner: the goal, how the company runs, what worries them most, the org chart as they see it | 2 hours, plus a short intake form and two tests before |
| Day 2 | We connect to your systems, read-only | About 10 minutes per system, from whoever holds the login |
| Days 3–7 | 15 minutes with each key person, the same questions for everyone. A 5-minute survey for the rest of the team. We read the data and the processes | Key people keep their 15-minute slot |
| Days 8–9 | We compare the three views and write the roadmap | Nothing |
| Day 10 | The readout: we walk you through the roadmap and set the decision limits together | 90 minutes |
The owner's time in total: two hours, plus the readout.
What's in the roadmap
- Your goal, and who's running the company. The owner's founder type, and what it means for how the company runs.
- Where you stand on SCOPE™ by Efficiency Sprint, and the gap between what the owner thinks, what the team says and what the systems show.
- How many decisions a week wait on the owner, and the key-person risk.
- The numbers today, measured again when the work is done.
- The org chart now and where it should go. For each department, what we'd change and what it takes.
- What to do first, including quick wins for the next 30 days.
- A decision authority matrix for the key roles: who decides what, up to what limit, and when it comes back to the owner.
- Where AI can go: ready now, after fixes, or not advised. AI goes only where the data is trusted, the process is written down and someone owns it.
You get it at a meeting, as a document and as a private website. More on what a roadmap contains: what an operations roadmap contains.
A sample
An example: Calder Supply, an invented company. There, 47 decisions a week wait on the owner. Key-person risk: 8 out of 10.
What happens after
The roadmap is yours either way. Your team can run it, or we run it with you in the Efficiency Sprint, starting with what's first on the list.
Next step
Questions
How much time does the owner spend?
Two hours on day one and 90 minutes at the readout. Key people give 15 minutes each.
Do you need access to our systems?
Read-only access, granted by whoever holds each login. It takes about 10 minutes per system.
What if we're not ready for AI?
That's what the Diagnostic tells you. The roadmap says, area by area, where AI is ready now, where it needs fixes first, and where it isn't advised.
Is it for private equity portfolio companies?
Yes. Every company is assessed the same way, so the results compare across a portfolio. See AI readiness for portfolio companies and Efficiency Sprint for private equity.
What does it cost?
We scope it on a short call, based on the size of the company.