Every good engagement starts by understanding before prescribing. Know what belongs in each phase, because doing GROW work on an unfinished FIX is how projects fail.
AUDIT: know where you stand
An audit usually takes one to three months. It ends with findings, priorities and a roadmap. It never ends with a design, because design belongs to FIX.
How an audit runs
Research first. We recommend that an audit starts with market research. ORIGIN does not conduct market research; a research partner does. When the data arrives we analyse it, both the numbers and the interviews.
Workshops. We build the picture of today with the client's leaders and the people who run the work.
Customers. We run customer surveys and measure the Net Promoter Score, a standard measure of how likely customers are to recommend the organisation.
Putting it together. We name the gaps, find their root causes, and separate quick wins, the improvements possible within weeks, from deeper work. A root cause is the real reason for a gap.
We look at finance, sales and operations because we own growth for our clients. We do not fix those functions, but we cannot promise growth without knowing how they work.
A client says "our marketing is not working". An audit might show the marketing is fine and the sales team answers enquiries after three days. Without the audit, we would have fixed the wrong thing.
An audit is ending. The client asks what they will receive. What do you tell them?
Never a design.
To prescribe is to recommend the fix.
AUDIT ends with a roadmap, never a design. Understand first, then prescribe.
FIX: build the foundations
FIX usually takes three to six months. It solves the root causes the audit found, in this order: strategy first, then brand, then systems.
The CRM is built. The client's team does not use it. Which row of FIX answers that?
So the client's team can use what was built.
Strategy first, then brand, then systems.
GROW: launch, activate, scale
GROW runs from six months to two years or more. It puts the foundations to work.
In GROW
Platforms go live: websites and apps.
The lead engine is switched on: campaigns, automation, AI agents.
Content is produced: films, photography, case studies.
The brand is applied everywhere: offices, events, packaging.
Results are measured and improved, month after month.
Strategy and execution are designed together from the first day. The strategist sits with the designer. The person who will build the CRM reads the go to market plan while it is being written. Nothing is handed over a wall, passed on with no conversation, between FIX and GROW, because the same house builds both.
A client wants campaigns to start next week, and the CRM is not ready. What do you do?
Leads would have nowhere to land.
Say so to your Team Lead, early. Campaigns without a place for the leads to land waste the client's money.
FIX builds what GROW needs to stand on. Never launch on a foundation that is not finished.
Before you move on
Three questions before you move on. Type your answer, send it, then check it.
Your answers stay on this device.1What does an audit end with?
The answerFindings, priorities and a roadmap. Never a design.
2In what order does FIX solve the root causes?
The answerStrategy first, then brand, then systems.
3Why do we audit finance, sales and operations?
The answerWe cannot promise growth without knowing how they work.
Understand. Build. Then launch.
Next: Build, and Build & Guard.