The Diagnosis.Questions.

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The Diagnosis

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A written diagnosis, usually 12 to 16 pages.

That doesn’t mean there are only 12 to 16 pages of thinking behind it. I research hard and look at the problem from unexpected angles. You get the part that actually matters.

You come out knowing what’s really going on, what matters most, what needs to change, what opportunities you may be missing, how you can stand apart, and where to put your time and money next.

We check in as I go, then finish with a call to talk through the recommendation and what to do next. No workshop series. No sixty-slide deck. No three safe routes for you to choose between.

No. If you knew, you wouldn’t need the week.

Bring the symptom: the campaign that did nothing, the product nobody uses, the message nobody repeats, the thing everyone agrees should be working but isn’t.

Very. This isn’t me disappearing for a week and coming back to tell you what’s wrong with your company.

You know your company, your product and your industry better than I do. I don’t pretend to arrive knowing everything about everything. My job is to learn it properly, understand what matters, then bring the outside view and the kind of thinking that’s much harder to have when you’re inside it every day.

There are check-ins as I go, so we can test what I’m seeing, question assumptions and catch anything that doesn’t ring true before it becomes the answer.

You can challenge what I’m seeing at any point. I’ll listen, test it and change my view if I’ve missed something.

At the end, I’ll still give you a clear recommendation rather than leaving you with three safe options and asking you to choose.

If you disagree with the finished Diagnosis, we talk it through properly on the final call. I’ll explain how I got there, you can challenge it, and if you’ve shown me something I missed, I’ll change it.

You’re not expected to just nod along.

The Diagnosis is designed to take one focused week.

Sometimes it takes a little longer to get underneath everything properly. If it does, that’s my problem, not yours. The price stays fixed.

It won’t run beyond two weeks.

I only take one project at a time. When you get in touch, I’ll tell you the next available week.

It won’t take up your whole week.

I’ll need a proper conversation at the start, access to whatever is useful, a couple of short check-ins as the thinking develops, and the ability to come back to you with questions. If speaking to customers or other people would help, I may ask you to make an introduction.

I’m not going to fill your diary with workshops to prove something is happening.

Because I immerse myself in it.

For that week, I want to understand your company, your industry and the people you’re trying to reach. I’ll use the product where I can, experience the journey as a customer would, read what they read and look at what your competitors are doing.

Then I ask myself: what would it take to change what I do?

Companies often assume customers understand what they’re saying because everyone inside the industry does.

I want enough time inside your world to see it from the outside properly. That’s why I don’t run four Diagnoses at once.

Either is fine. I’ll use what exists.

If you’re early, you don’t need a research department, a finished strategy or years of customer data. I’ll start from what the founders know, early customers, sales conversations, reviews, competitors, what people in the market are used to seeing, product data and the assumptions you’re currently building the business around.

If you already have plenty, I’d rather use it than make you pay to discover it again. I’ll work out what still holds, what’s already strong and worth protecting, what doesn’t, and what nobody has connected yet.

If there genuinely isn’t enough evidence yet to make a useful Diagnosis, I’ll tell you before you spend the money.

An audit tells you what you have.

The Diagnosis tells you what the problem is, what’s already working, what you may be missing, and what to do next.

Sometimes the answer is the brand. Sometimes it’s the offer, the message, the thing you’re asking people to do, or something else entirely.

If you need an inventory of your assets, hire an auditor.

Yes. I’ll need to see the messy bits, not just the polished version.

That might include internal research, previous work, customer feedback, things that didn’t work and disagreements about what the problem actually is.

None of that becomes a case study, post or portfolio piece without your explicit permission.

If you need an NDA, that’s fine too.

Startup founders who are about to spend and want to know what should come first. Marketing leaders who know something isn’t working, or can see an opportunity and want to know how to make more of it. Charity communications leads who need people to actually do something, not just notice.

The sector matters less than the problem.

Yes. One of the case studies here is charity work. Rates flex for small charities, so ask.

No. Tiny Force Ltd is based in London and works with clients anywhere. Most of it happens on calls, with a day in the room when that helps.

£8,000, fixed. No VAT to add.

£2,000 books the week. The remaining £6,000 is invoiced when I deliver the Diagnosis.

If you need to move the start date, give me at least 10 working days’ notice and we can move the booking once.

If you cancel at least 10 working days before we start, I’ll refund the £2,000. If you cancel later than that, I keep it because I’ve held the week for you and turned other work away. Once the agreed Diagnosis week has begun, the full £8,000 is due.

Everything is agreed in writing before we start. No day rates, no scope creep, no surprise line items.

No. Sometimes you already have everything you need.

The problem is that you’re leading with the wrong thing, leading with too many things, saying too much, pointing people in the wrong direction, or not making enough of something that’s already there.

Trying to talk to everyone usually means nobody feels like you’re talking to them.

If that’s what I find, I’ll show you what to change, what to use differently and what to leave alone.

You can take that and do it with the people you already have.

The Diagnosis and The Work are separate projects, each scoped and priced on its own. You don’t need one to book the other.

If the Diagnosis finds something worth making, there’s no obligation to make it with me, and the Diagnosis isn’t a deposit towards it.

Brand onions™. Logo refreshes as a job on their own. Anything that needs a team of eight before a decision gets made.

Replacing a good agency. If you already have one, keep them.

Give them the right problem.

If I think something isn’t worth your time or money, I’ll say so. If you think I’m wrong, I want you to say so too.

Email annaliisa@tinyforce.cc with the symptom, in your own words.

One paragraph is enough.

Start with whatever is closest:

I’ll tell you honestly whether a week with me is the right spend.