A deliberate way of working
Four standing commitments and a five phase way of running every engagement. This page exists so that you can judge us against what we say we will do.
Four things we commit to on every engagement
We write these down because they are easier to hold ourselves to when they are public.
Senior staffing, start to finish
The senior people you meet in the first meeting are the people who do the work. There is no bait and switch to a junior team after the contract is signed.
Written thinking, not ghost decks
Our default deliverable is a short written document that stands on its own. If a presentation is needed, it supports the document rather than replacing it.
Independence of view
We take no fees, referrals, or commissions from vendors, suppliers, or any third party connected to the question we are working on. Our only commercial relationship is with the client.
A real handover
We leave behind the working files, the models, and a short written runbook so the client team can carry the work forward after we step away.
Five phases, in the order they actually matter
Every engagement moves through the same five phases. The shape stays constant; the weighting of each phase changes with the question.
Agree the question
We write down, in one paragraph, the exact decision the work is supporting. If the client and we cannot agree on that paragraph, we do not start.
Build the evidence base
Interviews, data extracts, secondary sources, and anything else required to change a mind. All stored in one place, so the synthesis is traceable.
Synthesise honestly
We test the evidence against the original question. If it points somewhere inconvenient, that is where we go. The work is not finished until a reasonable person would be persuaded.
Write the answer
A single written document, short enough to read in one sitting, clear enough that a board member can follow the argument without us in the room.
Hand it over
A working session with the client team to walk through the evidence and the recommendation, followed by a written runbook for the people who will carry the work forward.
What happens when the evidence surprises us
Any honest engagement goes through a week in the middle when the evidence is starting to contradict the hypothesis the client arrived with. The firm treats that week as the most important week of the engagement, not the most uncomfortable. It is the week the client is paying for.
When the evidence moves, the Proprietor writes a short note to the client that lists the finding, the source, the confidence level, and the decision the finding is likely to affect. The note is sent before the end of the working day, not held back until the final report. Clients can ask questions, challenge the source, or request a follow on interview, and the firm treats those requests as part of the work.
If the finding is significant enough that it changes the scope of the engagement, the firm will say so in writing and propose the options. Options usually include continuing with the original scope, stopping the work at the current stage, or widening the scope to follow the new question. The firm does not expand the scope without written agreement, and the firm does not walk away from an engagement that is no longer interesting.
How this way of working differs from a larger firm
The main difference between the Dynmark approach and the approach of a larger firm is not the quality of the thinking. Larger firms have thoughtful people on every engagement. The difference is in the ratio of senior time to junior time, the length of the deliverable, and the willingness of the firm to disagree with the buyer in writing.
At Dynmark the senior time ratio is one hundred per cent. Every hour billed is a senior hour, because the firm does not staff junior bench people on engagements. The deliverable is usually a short document with a supporting appendix, not a sixty slide deck and a hundred page annex. And the firm will put a dissenting view in writing where the evidence calls for it, because there is no internal incentive to keep the client comfortable at the expense of the decision.
Clients who are used to the larger firm model sometimes ask the firm to produce a long presentation with many appendices. The firm is willing to do that where the client needs a board ready artefact, but the firm will usually propose a shorter written document first and offer to turn it into a presentation once the argument is settled.
The discipline of an engagement is not in how quickly we start talking. It is in how quickly we agree on the question, and how slowly we give up on it.FROM OUR WORKING NOTES