01 · Days 1–14
Sit with the people who will be in the donor room
Heading toward
A twelve-page strategy nobody in the field would read.
What we do
Name the two jobs. Pause the rest.
A 90-day way to start
Two jobs your country director will actually do.
Not a digital plan. Not another dashboard. Advice first — on the decision in the donor room. A workspace you can keep only if the work needs one place MERL can trust.
The job
Start with your question. Not with our shelf.
Mid-term coming. A donor asked for a plan. Experiments nobody uses. A dashboard country directors do not open. Real money in the next grant.
The question we listen for: can you stand in that room with evidence country teams already looked at?
One test on every experiment and every dashboard: does a named person use this to decide, to fund, or to defend?
What we will not do
No product in the first meeting.
- No global rollout slide.
- No rebuild of software you already pay for.
- No dashboard that fails the named-person test.
- No licence before someone is already using the pack.
90 days
The method we sell. Not a platform.
02 · Weeks 3–6
Agree what must hold — do not start again
Heading toward
Another warehouse of data, and a new set of logins.
What we do
Keep what you already pay for if it can be made honest. MERL in the same conversation.
03 · Weeks 7–12
Prove it in two country offices
Heading toward
A slide that said global rollout.
What we do
Two offices using it. A written plan for what stays. Others may ask. We do not push.
How to buy
One capability. Three promises. Do not blend them.
Deliver this
90 days. Two offices. Two jobs.
First invoice. Fixed fee. Written plan for what stays. The default start.
Run it for us
We own the cycle under a mandate
MERL judgement plus a workspace only if the grant file is still on fire after day 90.
We’ll run it
Licence after they are already using the pack
Your MERL lead runs the two jobs. Not a demo. Only after a named person is using it.
A workspace you can keep (IMP) sits under the second and third promise only. It is not why we show up.
What we productize
Your politics stay. The method travels.
You keep
- The two jobs, named.
- The sign-off habit in country.
- The grant file you can defend.
- The workspace, if you chose one.
- Your donor letter and your software.
We take into the next mandate
- The named-person test.
- The pack a country director opens.
- Field looks first, then HQ.
- The written stop-line when nobody owned a trial.
A story from the sector
From HQ experiments nobody used — to evidence country teams still run a year later.
Composite INGO. Education and protection. 22 offices. Not a named client. Named references under agreement.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Decisions | Quarterly lag. Dashboard closed. | Fortnightly pack directors opened. |
| Experiments | Four HQ trials. Two unused helpers. | Two jobs. Two trials closed in writing. |
| MERL | 47 spreadsheets that could not compare. | Numbers six offices could compare. |
| After we left | Consultants as the system. | Still running a year later. |
Next step
Tell us what you are being asked to do
A live programme. Something stuck. A donor meeting coming. We start there — and only then talk about tools. Reply within two business days.