[Placeholder] The first time we hear about a project is almost always a thirty-minute call. We've done a lot of these. Here's the structure — not because rigid agendas are good, but because the same four questions seem to make the difference between a useful first call and a polite waste of everyone's afternoon.
Minute 0–5 — context
[Placeholder] We start with you. Who are you? Who's asking for this work, and what are they trying to do? The answer to that second question is rarely "build the thing you described in your email." Usually it's a step removed — a deadline, a regulator, a board commitment, a missed quarter. We listen for that.
Minute 5–15 — current state
[Placeholder] What's already in place? What have you tried? What worked, what didn't, and what did you learn? This is the part of the call where we usually find the real constraint — the legacy system that can't be replaced, the data source that won't share, the team that's already overcommitted. We'd rather know up front.
Minute 15–22 — what would "done" look like
[Placeholder] If everything went well, what would you have at the end of the engagement? Not a deliverables list — a state of the world. A report on the regulator's desk. A dashboard the CFO checks every Monday. A trained team. The state-of-the-world version is what we contract against.
Minute 22–28 — the honest answer
[Placeholder] By minute 22 we usually know whether we're a fit. If we are, this is where we propose a rough shape — duration, deliverables, what we'd need from you — and check the budget band against it. If we're not, this is where we say so, and suggest who to call instead. We try not to sell people work we can't do well.
Minute 28–30 — what happens next
[Placeholder] If there's a path forward, you'll have a written summary in your inbox the next morning, with a fixed-price proposal in 48 hours. If there isn't, you'll have a short note thanking you for your time and (if appropriate) two or three names of teams who'd serve you better.
Why a fixed structure?
[Placeholder] Free thirty-minute calls are a famously bad use of senior time when they don't have a shape. Ours has one because we want to be useful in those thirty minutes — to you and to us. The structure is a courtesy, not a script.