# How to prepare for a consulting session so it is not wasted > To prepare for a consulting session, write the problem in one sentence with a number in it, gather the one or two figures you trust, list what has already been tried, and decide what outcome would make the session worthwhile. Twenty minutes of preparation usually moves the conversation straight past introductions and into the problem. Question: How should I prepare for a consulting session so the time is not wasted? Canonical: https://avidproblemsolvers.com/answers/prepare-for-consultation Updated: 2026-10-18 Publisher: Avid Problem Solvers (https://avidproblemsolvers.com/) ## Why does preparation matter so much? In a short session, the first fifteen to twenty minutes usually go on context: what the business does, how the process works, what the problem looks like. That time is necessary, but most of it can be done before the conversation starts. Every minute of context written down in advance is a minute available for diagnosis during the session. Preparation also changes the quality of the conversation. Writing the problem down forces a level of precision that speaking about it does not, and it often exposes assumptions that are worth questioning. ## How should you state the problem? In one sentence, with a number in it if at all possible. "Average onboarding time for business accounts has risen from six days to fourteen over the last two quarters" gives a consultant something to work with immediately. "Onboarding is too slow" does not. If you cannot attach a number, say so explicitly, and describe how the problem shows up instead: who notices it, when, and what they do about it. That tells the other person you may be dealing with an unknown problem rather than a known one, which changes where the session should start. The distinction is explained in [Known vs unknown operational problems](/answers/known-vs-unknown). ## Which numbers should you bring? Not a data dump. Bring the one or two figures you trust most, and be honest about the ones you do not: - **The headline metric** that describes the problem, with its trend over time. - **Volume**, so the scale is clear: items per day, cases per month, transactions per hour. - **The two ends of the process** if you have them: when work arrives and when it is finished. - **Any figure you distrust**, with a sentence on why. Distrusted data is often a clue in itself. If the process has a stretch with no data at all, mention it. That gap is frequently where the answer is, as described in [How to find an operational bottleneck you cannot measure](/answers/unmeasured-bottleneck). ## What have you already tried? List previous attempts and what happened. This prevents the session from rediscovering ideas that have already failed, and the pattern of failed fixes is diagnostic: if adding people did not reduce the backlog, the constraint is probably not capacity; if a new system did not shorten the cycle time, the delay probably sits outside the system. Include partial successes too. A fix that worked for a month and then faded points toward a missing control rather than a wrong diagnosis. ## Who should be in the room? The person who owns the problem and can act on the outcome the following week. A session attended only by someone who will report back to the real owner loses a great deal in translation. If the problem crosses teams, one person from each side of the main hand-off is worth more than several people from the same team. ## What outcome should you aim for? Decide in advance what would make the session worthwhile. Realistic targets for a single session are a sharper problem statement, a working hypothesis about the cause, and a short list of first actions — not a finished solution. Knowing that going in keeps the conversation focused. [What a one-hour operations consultation can realistically deliver](/answers/one-hour-consultation) sets out the limits honestly. ## What should you avoid? - **Sending a long deck instead of a short brief.** Thirty slides of background usually hide the one paragraph that matters. - **Pre-deciding the solution.** If the question is "how do we implement tool X", the session cannot test whether tool X addresses the cause. - **Leaving out the uncomfortable part.** Problems that would not be discussed in a board meeting are often the real constraint. Confidentiality is the point of an outside conversation. ## What does a good brief look like? Half a page is enough: the one-sentence problem, the key numbers with their trends, what has been tried, who owns it, and what you want to leave with. Written that way, a session can start at the problem rather than at the introductions. ## Related answers - [What a one-hour operations consultation can realistically deliver](https://avidproblemsolvers.com/answers/one-hour-consultation) - [Known vs unknown operational problems: how to tell them apart](https://avidproblemsolvers.com/answers/known-vs-unknown) - [How to find an operational bottleneck you cannot measure](https://avidproblemsolvers.com/answers/unmeasured-bottleneck) --- If this is the shape of your problem, one hour is usually enough to find the first move. One hour, $1,199 flat: https://avidproblemsolvers.com/#book