Consulting & Coaching Prompts

Build a MECE issue tree to diagnose why [company/organisation] is experiencing [problem: declining revenue/rising costs/customer churn/slow growth]. Break the problem into 2-3 levels of mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive branches. For each leaf node, suggest the hypothesis to test and data needed to validate it.

Write the content for a consulting 'recommendations' slide to present to [C-suite/board] of [company]. Situation: [brief context]. Findings: [key findings]. Write 3 prioritised recommendations with: the recommendation headline (action-oriented), rationale (why), expected impact (quantified if possible), implementation timeline, and key risks.

Analyse this business process and identify improvement opportunities: [describe current process — steps, owners, inputs, outputs, pain points]. Apply lean/Six Sigma thinking: identify waste (TIMWOOD), bottlenecks, handoff failures, and automation opportunities. Prioritise improvements by effort vs. impact.

Design a benchmarking analysis for [company/function] against [industry/peers]. Define: what to benchmark (KPIs, processes, capabilities), which 5-7 peer organisations to compare against and why, data collection approach (public/survey/purchased data), analysis framework, and how to present findings. Include a sample benchmarking table template.