No black box
How an engagement actually runs
Six stages, each with a concrete output you can inspect, and a clear split of what I need from you versus what I deliver. No mystery process, no black box.
Diagnose
- You provide
- Access to analytics, the CRM, ad accounts and 60 to 90 minutes of interview time.
- I deliver
- A structured audit of the website, tracking, CRM, automation and campaigns against your goals.
- Output
- A findings document ranked by impact, with quick wins separated from structural work.
Design
- You provide
- Decisions on priorities and budget envelope; honest constraints.
- I deliver
- Target architecture and a sequenced roadmap: what gets built or fixed, in what order, and what each phase must prove before the next starts.
- Output
- A written plan with scope, sequence, effort and success criteria per phase.
Implement
- You provide
- Content, brand assets and timely feedback at agreed checkpoints.
- I deliver
- Hands-on delivery: website build, CRM configuration, n8n workflows, tracking implementation, campaign setup. The person who planned it builds it.
- Output
- Working systems, delivered incrementally, reviewed at each checkpoint.
Integrate
- You provide
- Access coordination where third parties hold credentials.
- I deliver
- Connecting the parts: forms into the CRM, campaigns into analytics, automation across everything, with data entered once and flowing everywhere.
- Output
- An end-to-end tested flow from first visit to CRM record to report.
Measure
- You provide
- Agreement on definitions: what counts as a lead, an MQL, an opportunity.
- I deliver
- Dashboards from first touch to pipeline, event tracking, attribution setup and a reporting cadence.
- Output
- Dashboards your leadership trusts, refreshed automatically.
Improve
- You provide
- A monthly or fortnightly review slot and willingness to kill what does not work.
- I deliver
- A standing cadence of experiments, fixes and optimisation driven by the data the system now produces.
- Output
- A prioritised improvement log with results recorded against each change.
Inside the build
How one automation workflow comes to life
Every automated workflow, whether it drafts content, routes leads or reports pipeline, moves through the same four gates before it runs unattended.
- 01
Map
Model decisions, inputs, exceptions and permissions before writing any automation.
- Decision map and edge cases
- Data contract per step
- Who can trigger what
- 02
Connect
Expose only the right tools and data through governed MCP servers and APIs.
- Scoped credentials per system
- MCP server or API per tool
- Least-privilege access
- 03
Orchestrate
Build the multi-step workflow with validation, approvals, logs and recovery paths.
- Validation at every boundary
- Human approval gates
- Error handling and retries
- 04
Improve
Measure quality, latency and business impact, then refine prompts and tools.
- Run logs and audit trail
- Quality and cost metrics
- Prompt and tool revisions
A workflow only graduates to running unattended once it has survived real data, has an owner, and writes its own audit trail. Anything that cannot pass those gates stays supervised.
Working principles
The rules that keep engagements honest, whichever service they involve.
Foundations before spend
Tracking and lead flow are fixed before campaign budgets scale. Budget poured into a leaking system is the most expensive mistake in marketing.
Everything documented
Workflows, configurations and decisions are written down so your team owns them, not the consultant who built them.
Honest reporting
If something underperforms, the report says so, with what changes next. Vanity metrics never make a bad month look good.
Small phases, real checkpoints
You can stop at any phase boundary with usable work in hand. No engagement is a black box you cannot exit.
Next move
Start with a diagnosis
Every engagement begins with the same step: understanding what you have and what is leaking.