Productivityhacks v12

Management consultant
productivity hacks
How to be lazy and still get things done
1
Introduction
2
Management consultants are brutally efficient
3
In this presentation I will show you how
to do the right things fast and efficiently
so you can enjoy fully your work and life
4
What will we talk about?
Selection Faster pace Team work
 Issue tree  SMART goals  Tools

 Priorities  To-do list  Time budget
 Low hanging fruits  Tools  Collect knowledge
 Benchmarks  Bottlenecks  Bottlenecks
 80/20 rule  Multitasking  Up-or-out
 Emails  Manage expectations
 Folder structure  Sprints
 Simplify  Universal soldiers
 Standards and templates  Oh no methods
 Iteration  Meetings
 Smart batching and 1 piece  Australian race
flow
 Templates, Modules,
 Automation and Delegation Standards
 Zero Defect Rule
 Knowing for your customer
and being him
5
Which frameworks will we use?
Getting things done Lean manufacturing
80/20 Critical Chain
Theory of constraints Lean startup
6
What you will see in this presentation is are part of our on-line
course on how to be productive. You can get it with all the
additional resources with great discount
Management Consulting Productivity hacks
$20
Click to check my course 7

How to select things that it
makes sense to concentrate on?
8
What to do and what
NOT to do?
9
It makes more sense to stand
still than to chase the wrong
goals
10
If you are traveling on a train, before trying to
speed it up check whether you are heading in
the right direction.
11
See the forest first
and then the trees
12
Can't see the forest for the trees
13
Rules that will help you see the forest and not get distracted
by the many trees around you
Go from general to
Don’t read too much
specific
Look for main drivers Set the stopping point

(up to 5) for details
Start with an empty Don’t go too fast into

page details
Be critical and selective Set time limits
Get views from

Go to the forest
different angels
14
Example of how to see the forest first – consulting project.
Many go too fast to details and do not see the general picture
Going from specific to general
Ask for all data

Go through data Ask for more data
(50 points)
Find ways to cut

Analyze all data
costs
15
It makes much more sense to start from the general picture and
only after this go to details. It the case of consulting project that
would mean start with i.e. asking for cost structure and only going
in details for most important items
Going from general to specific
Create
Ask only for data
hypotheses for
Ask cost structure to check
the main cost
hypotheses
position
Find the most

Analyze the
important ways
selected data
to cut costs
16
As a result you get the work done 5-10 times faster and
almost all the possible effect
Going from specific to general Going from general to specific
Create
Ask only for
Ask for all data Go through Ask for more Ask cost hypotheses for
data to check
(50 points) data data structure the main cost
position hypotheses
Find the most

Find ways to Analyze all important Analyze the
cut costs data ways to cut selected data
costs
5-10 x faster
You get 75-95% of the impact
17
Use simple math
18
Whenever somebody mentions
math you see the dreaded formulas
19
There are some rules that are worth following
 Main things that certain thing depends on

Find drivers
Make educated guess
Round to integers  Instead of multiplying 2,3 by 3,61 multiple 2 by 4
Calculate in your mind
Do sampling afterwards
Write down the rough

values
20
Imagine that you want to use simple math to estimate how
long you will wait in the queue. You should use the following
simple formula
Number of people in
x Time per 1 customer
the queue
Number of cash
tilts
21
If you try to calculate the using the exact digits you may get
lost…..
Number of people in
the queue
Number of cash
tilts
Number of Time you will

Number of Time per 1
people in the wait
cash tilts customer
queue In min
32 3 2.3 23.4
22
Yet, if you round it up to integers you get fast a good-enough
answer
Number of people in
the queue
Number of cash
tilts
Number of Time you will

Number of Time per 1
people in the wait
cash tilts customer
queue In min
32 3 2.3 23.4
30 3 2 20.0
23
Issue tree
24
Issue tree is a concept that help you guess in a structured
manner the problems, reasons causing those problems and
on the basis of this decide what should be analyzed
Analysis to be
Area of analysis Suspected problems Possible reasons performed
Possible Reason 1 Analysis 1
Problem 1
Area 1
Problem 2
25
Have a look at an issue tree example for a chicken meat
producer. We guess that he has 3 problems in Logistics
Analysis to be
High costs of transport per ton of

goods
Big level of waste and breakage in

Transport
transport
Low usage of resources
26
Then for those problems we try to guess the reasons
causing them
Analysis to be
Badly designed routes
High costs of transport per ton of

Too big fuel usage
goods
No shipments on the way back
Badly designed method of packaging

which makes the product prone to
damage
Transport
transport
Speed not adjusted to the product
Badly organized work and schedule of

deliveries

Limitation on delivery time of finished
goods
27
Finally we come up with analyzes we have to carry to prove
or disprove these hypotheses (that certain reason is causing
certain problem Analysis to be
Analysis of designed routes, their
Badly designed routes length and the influence of possible
changes
High costs of transport per ton of Analysis of fuel usage and kilometers
Too big fuel usage
goods covered by vehicles
Analysis of load carried on the way

No shipments on the way back
back
Badly designed method of packaging Analysis of correlation between type

which makes the product prone to of packaging and percentage of
damage damaged
Transport
transport
Analysis of time spent on the way and
Speed not adjusted to the product
kilometers covered in that time
Badly organized work and schedule of Analysis of level of overtime, daily

deliveries organization of drivers work

Limitation on delivery time of finished Analysis of Clients’ preferences on
goods delivery time
28
Low hanging fruit
29
We are taught to look for challenges. In
real life it makes more sense to start with
the simple things that give you big impact
30
Get the low hanging fruits first. By low hanging
fruits we mean things with big impact and easy
to accomplish. You should first concentrate on
low hanging fruits and only after that go for
other priorities
31
How to find low hanging fruits? Low hanging fruits
Impact
High
2 1
 Things with big impact yet  Things with big impact that
expensive, time consuming require little work
No 3
 Easy but with low impact
Low Resources needed
Big Small 32
Example of low hanging fruits for StartupAkademia
Low hanging fruits
Impact (traffic generated
to the web)
High 2  Blog posts 1
 Udemy Course
 Office hours
 Additional resources
 Events
4 3
 Slideshare presentation
 Sniply
 Youtube
Resources needed
Low (money + time)
 Twitter
Big Small 33
Priorities
34
There are 4 types of priorities you can use
 FCFS – First Come First

Served (FIFO)
 LCFS – Last Come First (LIFO)
Served
 Due Date
 SOT – Shortest Operating Time
35
Depending on the rules you use you will do differen things
first
Time
needed for
When completion
it came In minutes FCFS LCFS Deadline SOT
Task Deadline
 Write 1 blog post  01.04  10.04  120 1 5 4 5
 Analyze sales  01.04  04.04  30 2 4 1 4

results
 Send email  02.04  09.04  2 3 3 3 1
 Read 4 articles  02.04  11.04  25 4 2 5 3
 Pay for cable TV  03.04  04.04  4 5 1 2 2
36
I use apply a mixture of SOT and Deadlines as it gives biggest
impact fast especially in a team set-up
Time
needed for
When completion
In minutes Deadline SOT
Task it came Deadline
 Write 1 blog post  01.04  10.04  120 4 5
 Analyze sales  01.04  04.04  30 1 4

results
 Send email  02.04  09.04  2 3 1
 Read 4 articles  02.04  11.04  25 5 3
 Pay for cable TV  03.04  04.04  4 2 2
37
Benchmarks
38
Without some point of reference you will not know
whether you are tall or short
39
There are 2 types of benchmarks
Internal External
 Based on previous execution  Based on some external source (i.e. reports)

 Extremely comparable  Not that easily comparable
 Very reliable  They to be treated with caution
 Detailed – can be put for each and every activity  Only for chosen amount of activities
 Can give you food for drastic improvements - by

analyzing them you can find totally different
method of working
40
By comparing your results and benchmarks you can decide
what to improve, work on
Current Internal External
Area Unit result Conclusions
 Salary  K USD  5 4 7  Your salary went up in

comparison with your previous
one but you are still below the
market
 Speed of typing  words/ minute  40 39 80  Your typing speed has improved

slightly yet you are far below the
speed achieved by others
 Speed of  minute  15 10 12  You not only improved your speed

analyzing Excel of analyzing but also are better
than others
 Makes sense to teach others how
to do it
41
Applying 80/20 rule
in practice
42
80/20 – Pareto Principal
43
What does 80/20 mean in practice
 Concentrate only on the big items

 Concentrate on the big customers
 Analyze the most typical cases
 Concentrate on the most frequently occurring
problems
 Analyze problems with big impact
 Your analyses should have only 20% of the
variable that generate 80% of the impact
 Start with subjects where you see the biggest
difference between actual results and
benchmarks
44
Here are 3 examples of using 80/20 rules
Area Description
 Learning Visual  Learn only the 5 most used items that will take only 20% of full course and will
Basic for Excel be used by in you in 80% cases
 Checking  You check only 20% of competitors that sales add-up to 80% of the market
competitors
 Salsa course  Go through 20% of the course to learn the moves and the figures used by 80% of
people
45
More details and additional resources you will see in our on-
line course on how to be productive
$20

How you can work
faster
47
Create to-do lists
48
To do list will help you to arrange you work into smaller
actionable pieces
49
There are few rules that will help you write down the to-do
list and make the best out of them
Use calendar as one of

Put everything on a list
the lists
Go through lists
Use multiple lists
regularly
Specific actionable Use tools to track tasks

things execution
Divided jobs into small

Put project as to-do list
tasks
Set pace
50
You can use different type of list of to-dos
Lists by status – by Getting Things Done

Next Someday
Projects Waiting for
Actions Maybe
Lists by place– by Getting Things Done
Home Work On-line Calendar Phone
Lists by status
Currently
To be done Done
Doing
Lists by production stages – example of udemy course

Topic Post-
Presentation Script Recording Upload
Research production
51
I use 4 types of lists
Managing me Managing Project done for Supervising

personal team customers startups
To be done Monika Project A Startup A
Expecting from
Lidia Project B Startup B
others
Recurring items Michael Project C Startup C
Master list Lisa Project D Startup D
52
Set SMART goals
53
The SMAR formula translates to 5 rules you should use when
defining the goals
S Specific – target a specific area for improvement
M Measurable – it has to be quantifiable; you have to have a way of measuring it
A Assignable – it says who will do it
R Realistic – it can be delivered
T Time-related – it says when it has do be delivered / by which dates
54
SMART goals should be set for the task but also for skills
Goals for ordinary tasks Goals for skills
 Avoid vague tasks  Set goals for improving your skills

 Always for projects set deliverable, date and  Set goals for learning new things
responsible person
 Set goals for making the repetitive things faster and
 Merge the task with the goal on the to-do list and better
set the right pace to a achieve the goal within the
defined time
55
Imagine that you want to write a book. Let’s translate it into
task with SMART goals
Imagine that you

want to write a book
Define the size
Divided into Make the tasks Set the pace and
of the book and
small tasks SMART execute
deadline
56
You first have to define the size of the book and the deadline
by which it has to be written
Imagine that you

Define the size
of the book and
deadline
 200 pages
 1 page = 800
characters
 Time= 1 year
57
Once you have the size and deadline divide it into small tasks.
In our case it will be writing pages
Imagine that you

Define the size
of the book and
deadline
 200 pages  Write pages

 1 page = 800
characters
 Time= 1 year
58
Obviously “writing pages”is not SMART so you have to be
more specific. In our case we set the goal as 1 page per day
Imagine that you

Define the size
of the book and
deadline
 200 pages  Write pages  Write 1 page

 1 page = 800 every day
characters
 Time= 1 year
59
Finally, you have to have a way of controlling the pace and
reacting. In our case once a week you make a summary. If
you are below the target you have to speed up or allocate
more resources
Imagine that you
Define the size
of the book and
deadline
 200 pages  Write pages  Write 1 page  Measure every

 1 page = 800 every day week completion
characters rate against the
 Time= 1 year target (1
page/day=7
pages/week)
 If necessary act
to keep the pace
60
By comparing your results and benchmarks you can decide
what to improve, work on
Current
Area Unit result Internal External Target Actions
 Learn  Level  0 n/a Intermediate  Intermediate  Sing-in the course

Spanish in 2 years  Listen to Spanish TV 30 minutes
every day
 Speed of  words/  40 39 80  Achieve 60  Enroll into a on-line course

typing minute words/minute  Devote 15 minutes every day to
In 3 months training
61
Map your skills, experience, skills and set goals where you
want to be Current
Target
# of projects Industry
Experience Current Target Current Target
 Sales projects  1  4
 Marketing projects  2  6
 Supply chain projects  2  2
 Production projects  3  3
 HR projects  0  1
Skills Lowest Level Highest level
 Excel
 Negotiation
 English
 Optimizing production
 Setting up on-line
marketing campaigns
62
Use the right tools
and master them
63
People tend to use old tools there are used to
as they have no incentive to work better and
faster. You can drastically improve the
efficiency by identifying the right tools
64
Let’s have a look at tools used in consulting
65
First you list most often activites
Define what you do Master the tools you Constantly improve

Find tools
most often are using and test new ones
 Analyze
 Present
 Collect knowledge
 Manage projects
and teams
 Sell
66
Then you list the tools currently used

Find tools
 Analyze  Excel
 Present  Power Point
 Collect knowledge  Database on Google

Sheet with links
 Manage projects  Database on Google

and teams Sheet
 Sell  Direct sales and

content marketing
on events
67
As a 3rd step you try to device ways to improve your usage of
those tools
Find tools
 Analyze  Excel  Learn advanced formulas ,

formats and VBA,
shortcuts
 Present  Power Point  Learn animation, using of
templates, shortcuts
 Collect knowledge  Database on Google  Use advanced function

Sheet with links and templates, use zapier
for partial automation
 Manage projects  Database on Google  Learn advanced features

and teams Sheet of Google Sheet that will
enable you managing the
project or team
 Sell  Direct sales and  Increases your network

content marketing (LinkedIn) and start
on events propagating content
marketing on different
platforms (Guest blogging,
reports distributed to
customers, Slideshare)
68
Finally you can look for much better options.

Find tools
 Analyze  Excel  Learn advanced formulas ,  Test Access, SPSS, R

formats and VBA, for specific
shortcuts purposes
 Present  Power Point  Learn animation, using of  Test Prezio,
templates, shortcuts Powtoon, Explain
everything for this
purpose
 Collect knowledge  Database on Google  Use advanced function  Test Get Pocket,
Sheet with links and templates, use zapier Evernote
 Manage projects  Database on Google  Learn advanced features  Test Asana, Leankit,
and teams Sheet of Google Sheet that will Smartsheet, Trelllo,
enable you managing the Nobe
project or team
 Sell  Direct sales and  Increases your network  Use Linkedin

content marketing (LinkedIn) and start Premium, Buffer,
on events propagating content start microblogging
marketing on different on Twitter, Google+
platforms (Guest blogging,  Get cloes.io for cold
reports distributed to calling and delegate
customers, Slideshare) it partially to other
team members
69
You have to find tools for the most often done activities

Find tools
 Analyze  Excel  Learn advanced formulas ,  Test Access, SPSS, R

formats and VBA, for specific
shortcuts purposes
 Present  Power Point  Learn animation, using of  Test Prezio,
templates, shortcuts Powtoon, Explain
everything for this
purpose
 Collect knowledge  Database on Google  Use advanced function  Test Get Pocket,
Sheet with links and templates, use zapier Evernote
 Manage projects  Database on Google  Learn advanced features  Test Asana, Leankit,
and teams Sheet of Google Sheet that will Smartsheet, Trelllo,
enable you managing the Nobe
project or team
 Sell  Direct sales and  Increases your network  Use Linkedin

content marketing (LinkedIn) and start Premium, Buffer,
on events propagating content start microblogging
marketing on different on Twitter, Google+
platforms (Guest blogging,  Get cloes.io for cold
reports distributed to calling and delegate
customers, Slideshare) it partially to other
team members
70
Thanks to this exercise you can speed up main
activities 2-10x. We start with mastering
current tools as it is easy to ask people to
improve at things they know then to make
them learn new tools
71
List of the most important tools for consultant
Knowledge
Market research Analyze Present Sales & Marketing Team management
Management
72
Now let’s have a look at a different, yet real example of engineers
preparing drawing of aluminum constructions for their customers
73
Below example of engineers in a support department that
have to draw designs for clients in Autocad. They draw
aluminum profiles but unfortunately line by line

Find tools
 Prepare projects  AutoCad

for clients
74
You can significantly improve by introducing libraries of ready
made elements and storing previous projects in standardized
form

Find tools
 Prepare projects  AutoCad  Create libraries

for clients  Store previous projects
75
On top of that you can buy add-on for Autocad that reduces
drastically the time needed for drawing

Find tools
 Prepare projects  AutoCad  Create libraries  Buy add-on Autocad

for clients  Store previous projects that changes the
drawing methods
76
As you can see by going the full way you are able to improve
8x and do in 2 hours what used to take you 16 hours. For a
department of 4 people basically it meant that now they
could do the job of 32 qualified engineers

Find tools
 Prepare projects  AutoCad  Create libraries  Buy add-on Autocad

for clients  Store previous projects that changes the
drawing methods
 Time in hours  16 hours  10 hours  2 hours

needed for 1
project
77
$20

Removing bottlenecks
79
Bottlenecks are dangerous as their hurt the efficiency of the
whole system. To improve the wholes system you have to
improve first bottlenecks
80
Bottleneck is always at the place where you have the lowest
capacity. Have a look at 3 examples below x Stage capacity
x Bottleneck
Example 1
7 5 7
Example 2
5 10 20
Example 3
5 5 3
81
The are 4 rules that you should follow when it comes to
bottlenecks
 Identify what is the bottleneck
 Increase its throughput by lowering the time needed for

everything that goes through the bottleneck
 Add new resources to bottleneck
 Adjust everything to the bottleneck – so it works at the

same pace
82
Imagine that you are working in a company working in a
content marketing. Your bottleneck is writing posts
# of post that can
xx be done in a week
by 1 person
Edit and modify

Research topics for a
Write a post Create illustration post, add illustration
post
and schedule
20 5 7 10
83
If you Speed up the writing process (faster typing, better tools,
shortcuts for the most popular words) you boost capacity to 7 and
Creation of illustration becomes your bottleneck
# of post that can
by 1 person
Edit and modify

post
and schedule
20 5 7 10
 Speed up the writing process (faster typing, 20 8 7 10

better tools, shortcuts for the most popular
words)
84
Finally if you make the researcher do also par time writing and
making illustration you boos capacity even further to 9 post per
week. Writing post again becomes bottleneck. But with the same
people you produce almost 2x
# of post that can
by 1 person
Edit and modify

post
and schedule
20 5 7 10
 Speed up the writing process (faster typing, 20 8 7 10

better tools, shortcuts for the most popular
words)
 Make the researcher do also par time

writing and making illustration 10 9 10 10
85
Avoid multitasking
86
What is the role of business analyst?
Multitasking = Pure evil
When you try to multitask you get deconcentrated
You waste time on switching between tasks
It lowers actually your IQ
You can’t achieve the flow
87
If you want to avoid multitasking follow the following rules
Check email only on set

Make regular breaks
intervals
Switch off the phone / Make the tasks small

fb/ others enough
Block time for certain Test how music works

tasks with you
Follow to-do list using

the priorities
1 task at a time
88
Avoid emails
89
Emails are causing a chaos due to its iterative nature
90
If you want to avoid emails follow the following rules
Write in clear and Use Slack for small

simple manner things
Don’t respond with

Forbid emails
“thank you”
Send always to the

Walk
minimal # of people
Send always to the Kill the reasons for

person that can react emails
Use Google Sheet /

Kill the iteration
Asana for projects
91
Create universal
structure of folders
92
In most cases in consulting you will be doing a lot of different
project and you may loose a track of what you have done
Supply chain
General audit
Cost cutting
Sales Force Management

 After a few project you will be
Marketing improvement lost – you will not remember
what was done on what project
Cost cutting  Consulting and many services
are bout managing knowledge
 If you organize the knowledge
Supply chain properly you can reuse it on
other projects
Supply chain  Therefore create universal
structure of folders
Marketing improvement
General audit
Supply chain
93
Below an example of structure used for consulting project
Admin
Legal
PBC
Customer Project A
folder folder
Area A
Area B
Deliverables
94
Talk and write simple, in a
clear and coherent way
95
Writing in a simple way is about following certain simple
rules
Make it short and sweet Use the right format
Use the pyramid

Structure
principle
Tell in a pure and clear Send it to the right

way what you want person
Start from general and

Use bullet points
then go to specific
Kill adjectives and

Conclusion first
adverbs
96
Messaging – example how NOT to write it
Dear Kate
You probably remember that last week, somewhere around

afternoon, when I was strolling with my boyfriend in this humid day,
we came across you and then when I was talking on the phone you
my back turned to you, you kissed my boyfriend on the lips.
Moreover, I day before that incident, when you were at my mom’s

place at dinner you said that it was the worst meal you had ever had.
On top of that, when my cat tried to approach you gently you kicked
him and told him that next time you would bring your big, scary dog.
Taking everything mentioned above, I must say admit that I cannot

me your friend any longer. In fact it seems that I do not like you
anymore.
Best regards
Mary
97
Messaging – example how to write it
Dear Kate
I do not like you and I don not wish to see you anymore because:
1. You were hitting on my boyfriend
2. You insulted my mother
3. You hurt my cat
Mary
98
Standardize everything
99
Why it makes sense to standardize?
Easy to go through what Brain works faster with

you have done so far standards
You can reuse your

You can find faster what
products
you need
Less versions to manage
100
How to decide whether to standardize
Often used Used by many
Standardize
Last for longer time
101
Below you will find examples of things standardized in
consulting and a typical company
Consulting Typical company
Folder structure Internal documents
Naming of files External documents
Proposals to customers Main process
Agreements Dress code
Language of
Deliverables
communication
Analyses
Main processes
102
There are some rules for standardizing that you should follow
Use few standards Communicate standards
Internal standards
higher than external Teach standards
Round up to closes
standard
103
Standardization – examples of
rules for Excel
104
What rules should be used when building analysis in Excel
Usage of colors Shortcuts
Consistency between
No mouse
sheets
Pyramid principle Description
1-source rule Data source
Repetition of variables Master sheet
105
The most useful functions
Financial /
Basic functions Others
Mathematical
 SUMIF / SUMIFS  RAND / RANDBETWEEN  Pivot

 COUNTIF / COUNTIFS  MOD  Slicer
 HLOOKUP  NPV  Relative addresses
 VLOOKUP  IRR  Formats
 MATCH  ABS  Hyperlink
 SUMPRODUCT  MAX / MIN  Remove Duplicates
 IF  CORREL  Filters
 AND / OR  Sorting
 IFERROR  Data Validation
 AVERAGEIF  Trace Dependents /
 LEFT / RIGHT / MID Precedent
 FIND  Analysis Tool Pack
 CONCATENATE
 YEAR / MONTH / DAY
 ROUND / ROUNDUP /
ROUNDDOWN
 TODAY
 VALUE
 WEEKDAY
106
Create templates
107
Templates can save you a lot of time. They are area almost
ready made pieces of work that need some changes to be
used. It is great for repetitive work
108
How to decide whether to make templates
Can be reused Often Used
Template
Time-consuming
109
Define what you should create templates for. In consulting
we use a lot of templates to make the repetitive work less
time consuming
Consulting Dimensions
Sales
 For every product, branch
presentation
 All standard emails: about meetings, data request, workshop, sales emails,
Emails thank you email
Data request  For every product (project type) and branch – Excel
Project Time
sheets
Proposal  For every product (project type) and branch – Word
 For every product (project type) – Word

Agreement
 For every product (project type) – Word

Folder structure
Deliverable  For every product (project type) and branch in Excel

presentation  Library of standard slides with typical analyses to choose from
110
Create modules
111
Modules is something that helps you go beyond templates
and used them in a situation that seem not easy to be
standardized
112
Creating modules enables you to turn even things that
Unique
Rather standard
About the company (history, experience, offices)
Problem description
Proposed solution
Sales
presentation
Pricing
Team
Contact Details
113
$20

Shelf management
115
Consulting is a place where the work is very volatile – one day you work
15 hours and next day you have nothing to do. What you want to do is
use the time of low activity to somehow prepare yourself and absorb
periods of high activity
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
116
If you have such a volatile work, you should create a shelf of
tasks to be done once you are free. This to-dos should be
properly selected and structured and can have the form of a
Kanban
117
Below you have an example of defining of to-dos for the
Kanban shelf Read 5 articles
Read 5 articles
Read articles
Read 5 articles
Read 5 articles
Read 50 pages
of 1 book
Product Read 50 pages

Read book
development of 1 book
Read 50 pages
of 1 book
Draft in pencil
Draft in PP
Product
proposal
Fill in 5 slides
Fill in 5 slides
118
Tasks from the Product development exercise you put into
the Kanban
Education Product Sales

development
119
There are number of things that you can put on the shelf
Learning new tools Training preparation
Conduct training (esp.

Learning new skills
lesson learnt)
Improving skills Business development
Project preparation Template preparation
Knowledge base
Product Development
preparation
120
Avoid iteration
121
As you can see in the example of email exchange iteration is
one of the worst things that absorbs too much time and
prolongs all activities
122
There are number of things causing iteration
Formats of
Emails
communications
Organizational structure
Lack of sense of urgency
& number of people
You don’t know people Vacations and travels
No data / No
Reaction time
analysis
Lack of clear priorities
123
Therefore makes sense to take actions and kill iteration
Avoid emails
Prepare ahead
Decision sessions
Create rules of behavior
Delegate things down

the command chain
Simplify organizational
structure
124
Decision session how it can look like?
Why it makes sense? Rules:
Shorter reaction time Get into one room
Huge time savings Do regularly
Less noise (emails) and

Take notes
interactions
No effort to coordinate Make decision
Strengthen the team Come prepared
Be brutally
…..
straightforward
125
Guess and prepare ahead
126
If you prepare ahead you can save a lot of time on the project. On most
project data collection starts at the beginning of the project which is
actually 2-3 months too late
Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
 Project Start
 Data Gathering
 Analysis
 Presentation & Discussion
 End of the project
Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
 Project Start
 Data Gathering
 Analysis
 Presentation & Discussion
 End of the project
127
Guess and prepare ahead
Prepare a list of Prepare Excel
Guess what the hell is the
questions for the sheets for data
problem?
Client input
Tools • Excel • Word • Word / Excel
End product • Issue tree • List of PBC (documents • Formats and manual for
to be Prepared By filling them in
Client)
Aim • Structure your problem • Put into words your • Create formats in Excel to
• Specify analyses to be information needs gather data as raw as
performed possible
Time • A week or two before the start • After preparing issue tree. If • After preparing issue tree and
of the project. possible at least a week list of questions for the client.
• Should take up to 4-8 hours before arriving at the clients If possible at least a week
premises. before arriving at the clients
premises.
Source of • Your own mind • Issue tree • Issue tree

information • Internet • Former projects
• Specialized literature
128
Get rid of unused things
129
Why it makes sense to get rid of unused things?
Slows down
Takes the place that can

be used by good things
Mental pressure
Distracts you
You lose track
Costs money
130
Since you operate on many platforms and levels you can
create multiple messes. On all of them you should introduce
order and simplicity
Desktop Browser Desk Folder structure
To-do list Kanban shelf Computer House
131
Deadlines
132
Why you need deadlines?
To know when it has to

be done
To set priorities properly
To manage properly
Parkinson Law
To communicate with
the rest
To create sense of
urgency
133
We have 2 types of deadlines
Internal ≪ External
134
Know your customers
135
Who is your customer and why working for him will make you
work faster
Identify your Implement in your

Observe and understand
customer work
Description • Internal • Listen • Use the knowledge to

• External • See how he behaves and uses your product apply 80/20 rules
• Observe how he takes decisions • Set priorities on things
• Observe how he sets priorities that involving specific
• Create in your head his decision making model customers using the
knowledge on his
constraints and
preferences
Outcome • You know who you • Know his pains an problems • Doing the right things
relate to internally and • Understand how your actions are entangled with that will get effect at
externally his every day life your customer
• Insight into mechanisms
• Insight into preferences and customer constraints
136
Be your customer
137
It makes a lot of sense to become your customer. This will help you even
further understand how to communicate properly and what will give you
biggest results
Suffer his pains and doubts
Learn competitors / Taste

their solutions
Get to know other customers
Understand the customer

language
138
Master your field
139
Who have to first define your field and the level of your
excellence
 Current level
 Target level
Sales Marketing Operations Programming
140
There are number of pros and cons of becoming an expert in
a relatively wide area
Expert status Diminishing returns
Your specialization may

Faster thinking disappear
You can go further In-box thinking

within certain field
No need to invent Crowd effect
Always ahead of the rest
141
Imagine that you want to become VP of sales. First you start
by defining your current profile
Allocate time for this
Define your current Define your target Set your SMART goal
or to-dos in the Kanban
profile profile on this subject
/ shelf for future tasks
VP of sales / CEO Level

 Sales  1
 Marketing  1
 Operations  0
 Finance  1
 Coding  0
142
Afterwards you have to set your target level of things you
want to concentrate on
VP of sales / CEO Level VP of sales / CEO Level

 Sales  1  Sales  3
 Marketing  1  Marketing  5
 Operations  0  Operations  2
 Finance  1  Finance  2
 Coding  0  Coding  1
143
…. And you convert them into SMART goals

VP of sales / CEO Level VP of sales / CEO Level Goals for Year 1

 Sales  1  Sales  3  Sales – jump by 1 level
 Marketing  1  Marketing  5  Marketing – jump by 2
 Operations  0  Operations  2 levels
 Finance  1  Finance  2  Operations – jump by 1
 Coding  0  Coding  1 level
144
In last stage you convert them into tasks

VP of sales / CEO Level VP of sales / CEO Level Goals for Year 1 Allocate time
 Sales  1  Sales  3  Sales – jump by 1 level  Every Friday or
 Marketing  1  Marketing  5  Marketing – jump by 2  1 month devoted to studying
 Operations  0  Operations  2 levels Example of to-dos
 Finance  1  Finance  2  Operations – jump by 1  SALES: Reading 2 articles on
 Coding  0  Coding  1 level cold-calling
 SALES: Work on 1 day in a call
center
 SALES: Work on 1 hour every
day in a customer service
 MARKETING: Reading 2
articles on content marketing
 MARKETING: Reading 2
articles on marketing
automation
 MARKETING: Learn to use
Buffer
 MARKETING: Learn to use
Buzzsumo
 OPERATIONS: Read 50 pages
of Goal (book on theory of
constraints)
 OPERATIONS: Analyze 3
processes at your company
using OLE and bottleneck
analysis
145
1 piece flow
146
Thanks to well set up process I got my tooth removed in under 20 minutes
from entering the building to leaving it without the tooth in a taxi heading
home
Register Take picture Tooth removal Payment
 2 minutes  5 minutes  5 minutes  2 minutes
147
Why it make sense to use 1-piece flow
Brain is more likely to

Maximal Output
experience flow
Successes come often Less distractions
No work in progress Bigger order
Fewer chances to do Faster you discover

something wrong whether it made sense
Faster reaction time Lower waste
148
As you can see one piece flow for content marketing gives
you more often results than extreme batching. Yet it is not as
efficient Number of posts
done at the same
time
Edit and modify

Write a post Create illustration post, add illustration Outcome
post
and schedule
 1 day per post  1 day per post  1 day per post  1 day per post  4 post every
 4 days on this phase  4 days on this phase  4 days on this phase  4 days on this phase 16 days
149
Smart batching
150
Smart batching is a compromise between 1-piece flow and
extreme batching. You get some efficiencies yet you do not
do things in big batches
Extreme 1 piece Smart

batching flow batching
151
Example of smart batching for content marketing vs extreme
batching and 1 piece flow Number of posts
done at the same
time
Edit and modify

Write a post Create illustration post, add illustration Outcome
post
and schedule
152
Why it make sense to use smart batching
Efficiency Gains Suitable for known tasks
Some (limited) work in

No flood of output for
progress
your customers
Compromise between
efficiency & stimulation
153
When it makes sense to use smart batching? 1-piece flow
Smart
batching
Extreme
batching
What Is the set-up / switching cost high? High Low
Is it boring? Yes No Yes No
How long it takes to complete 1 piece? Hours Weeks Hours Weeks Hours Weeks Hours Weeks
154
Automation
155
What is automation?
Full automation Semi-automatic
156
What is the benefit of automation
Huge Time savings Suitable for known tasks
Some (limited) work in

No flood of output for
progress
your customers
Compromise between
efficiency & stimulation
157
Examples of automation
Area Basic Tool Automation
 Analysis  Excel  VBA

 Access
 SPSS
 Emailing  Email  Emailing programs with

autoresponders i.e. Mailchimp,
GetResponse
 Marketing automation solutions
 Pictures  Paint  Canva and Canva for Work

preparation
 Content  Power Point  VBA for Power Point

marketing  Facebook / Twitter modules  Buffer
 Zapier
 IFTTT
158
Examples of semiautomatic solutions
Manual Automatic
159
Examples – marketing automation
160
Examples – marketing automation
161
Delegate
162
There are 2 types of delegations
Delegate part of the

Full outsourcing
work
163
You have to follow some rules to make delegation successful
Same standards as you Ordering tool
Manage capacity for

Use your templates
delegation
Trained by you
Control tool
Same philosophy of
work
164
Examples of delegation from management consultants -
Option 1 sb Person performing
the task
Duration of task
x day performance
Write in pencil Template in Conduct analysis

Fill in slides
presentation Power Point for the slides
You You You You
1 day 2 days 14 days 4 days
Visual Additional Overview and

Final overview
modification analyses modifications
You You You You
1 day 2 days 2 days 1 day
165
Examples of delegation from management consultants -
Option 2 sb Person performing
the task
Duration of task
x day performance

Fill in slides
PM / Associate Business Analyst Business Analyst Business Analyst

Final overview
PM / Associate Visual Assistant Business Analyst PM / Associate
166
Have a look at what gives you delegating in terms of money
Option 1 – You do everything Option 2 – You delegate whatever you can
PM / Associate 27 day PM / Associate 3 day
Business Analyst 0 days Business Analyst 22 days
Visual Assistant 0 days Visual Assistant 2 days
Cost of the project = 27 K Cost of the project = 10 K
167
Zero defect rule
168
Zero defect rule
Find the error as soon as possible

and eliminate it from the flow 169
Examples of management consultants – where should be the
checking points? sb Person performing
the task
Duration of task
x day performance
Additional
checkpoints

Fill in slides
PM / Associate Business Analyst Business Analyst Business Analyst

Final overview
PM / Associate Visual Assistant Business Analyst PM / Associate
170
Poka Yoke
171
Poka Yoke Example in office
172
$20

Check my presentation on on-line models to understand
them properly
Market research
Practical guide for startups and entrepreneurs
presentation
174
them properly
Business models
Practical guide for startups and entrepreneurs
presentation
175
them properly
How to become world class

analyst
A practical guide
presentation
176
them properly
How to open a successful

restaurant
A practical guide
presentation
177
Subscribe to our channels:
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178

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Management consultant

Selection Faster pace Team work

 Issue tree  SMART goals  Tools

Getting things done Lean manufacturing

80/20 Critical Chain

Theory of constraints Lean startup

Management Consulting Productivity hacks

Click to check my course 7

Look for main drivers Set the stopping point

Start with an empty Don’t go too fast into

Be critical and selective Set time limits

Get views from

Going from specific to general

Ask for all data

Find ways to cut

Going from general to specific

Find the most

Going from specific to general Going from general to specific

Find the most

You get 75-95% of the impact

 Main things that certain thing depends on

Make educated guess

Round to integers  Instead of multiplying 2,3 by 3,61 multiple 2 by 4

Calculate in your mind

Write down the rough

Number of Time you will

Number of Time you will

Possible Reason 1 Analysis 1

Possible Reason 2 Analysis 2

Possible Reason 3 Analysis 3

Possible Reason 4 Analysis 4

High costs of transport per ton of

Big level of waste and breakage in

Low usage of resources

Badly designed routes

High costs of transport per ton of

No shipments on the way back

Badly designed method of packaging

Speed not adjusted to the product

Badly organized work and schedule of

Low usage of resources

Analysis of load carried on the way

Badly designed method of packaging Analysis of correlation between type

Badly organized work and schedule of Analysis of level of overtime, daily

Low usage of resources

 Easy but with low impact

Low Resources needed

High 2  Blog posts 1

 FCFS – First Come First

 Write 1 blog post  01.04  10.04  120 1 5 4 5

 Analyze sales  01.04  04.04  30 2 4 1 4

 Send email  02.04  09.04  2 3 3 3 1

 Read 4 articles  02.04  11.04  25 4 2 5 3

 Pay for cable TV  03.04  04.04  4 5 1 2 2

 Write 1 blog post  01.04  10.04  120 4 5

 Analyze sales  01.04  04.04  30 1 4

 Send email  02.04  09.04  2 3 1

 Read 4 articles  02.04  11.04  25 5 3

 Pay for cable TV  03.04  04.04  4 2 2

 Based on previous execution  Based on some external source (i.e. reports)

 Very reliable  They to be treated with caution

 Can give you food for drastic improvements - by