Independent Advisory
You do not always need more ideas. Sometimes you need to know which one deserves your attention.
I work with solo founders, independent creatives and product teams to examine what they are building, challenge the assumptions underneath it and decide what should happen next.
Sometimes that requires one focused conversation. Sometimes it requires a deeper examination of the product, its customers and the decisions shaping it.
Based in Brisbane, I work with clients across Australia and remotely with teams elsewhere.
Two ways to work together, depending on the depth of the problem. Start with a $49 advisory call if you are unsure which fits.
Explore ways to work together →Book a $49 advisory callWhen an outside perspective helps
Being close to the work is useful, until it stops you seeing it clearly.
You may have too many possible directions, conflicting advice or an idea that has grown more complicated than it needs to be.
You may be unsure whether the problem is the product, the audience, the positioning, the business model or the way the idea is being communicated.
You may simply need an experienced person who can move between creative, technical, product and commercial thinking without forcing the problem into one discipline.
My role is to help identify what is known, what is assumed, what matters now and what should happen next.
Ways to work together
The depth of the engagement should match the depth of the problem.
For solo founders, makers and independent creatives
Direction Session
AUD $395 + GST
A focused advisory engagement for one idea, decision, product, service or creative direction that needs an experienced outside perspective.
- One person
- One defined area of direction
- Pre-session review
- 90-minute working session
- Written priorities and next steps
For established products, services and product teams
Product X-Ray
AUD $4,500 + GST
A deeper examination of one existing product, service or defined system, including customer value, assumptions, evidence, decision risk and distribution.
- One existing product or system
- Evidence and product review
- Up to three stakeholder discussions
- Written diagnostic
- 30 to 90-day action plan
Direction Session
One person. One defined decision. A clearer direction.
The Direction Session is for someone building, creating or deciding alone who needs more than encouragement, but does not need a large consulting engagement.
You might be choosing between ideas, questioning an offer, deciding what to build first, struggling to explain the value of your work or wondering whether the current direction has practical weaknesses you are too close to see.
The purpose is not to generate more possibilities. It is to examine the ones already in front of you and decide which deserve your time.
Suitable questions
Examples, not requirements.
- Which of these ideas should I pursue?
- Is the problem the product, the audience or the way I am describing it?
- What should I build first?
- Is this offer clear enough for somebody to pay for?
- Am I solving a genuine problem or one I have invented for myself?
- What am I overlooking because I am too close to the work?
- What should I stop doing?
- What is the most defensible next step?
What is included
- A concise pre-session questionnaire
- Up to 30 minutes of relevant material reviewed before the session
- One 90-minute private advisory session
- A written summary of the central findings
- A prioritised list of next steps
- One clarification email within seven days
AUD $395 + GST
Start with the $49 Advisory Triage CallThis is not a reduced Product X-Ray. It is a focused engagement designed for one person and one defined area of direction.
Additional research, implementation, design work, ongoing mentoring or repeated review rounds are not included, but can be scoped separately when appropriate.
Product X-Ray
Before you add another feature, find out what is actually wrong.
Product problems rarely arrive wearing their real name.
A feature request may actually be a positioning problem. A growth problem may begin inside the product. A request for more research may be a decision the team is avoiding. A rushed compromise may be quietly turning into something the business will support for years.
The Product X-Ray engagement is for founders, product leaders and teams who know something is not working, but are too close to the product to diagnose it clearly.
Product X-Ray
One product, service or defined system. Ten business days. A clearer diagnosis and a defensible set of decisions.
- One defined product or system
- Up to three stakeholder discussions
- Written diagnostic
- 90-minute findings session
- 30 to 90-day action plan
- One follow-up advisory call
AUD $4,500 + GST
Start with the $49 Advisory Triage Call →Or continue readingWhat most teams are missing
You probably do not need more ideas.
Most teams already have more ideas than they can build.
What they lack is a reliable way to decide which problem deserves attention, which evidence matters and which assumptions have quietly become accepted as fact.
My role is not to arrive with another list of features. It is to examine the product, the reasoning behind it and the way customers experience it, then identify where the real problem appears to be.
Sometimes that confirms what the team already suspects. Sometimes it points somewhere completely different. Both outcomes are useful.
The five lenses
The questions become a process.
Each Product X-Ray examines the same product from five connected directions. No single metric, interview or workshop can provide the entire answer.
01
What people actually use
Which parts of the product create real value? Which features are being ignored, tolerated or worked around? What are your best customers doing differently from everyone else?
Usage does not automatically explain motivation, but it gives us somewhere more useful to begin than another feature wishlist.
02
What customers actually value
Do people understand what the product does? Do they care?
A product can be technically powerful and still fail to connect its capabilities to an outcome people value enough to choose, adopt or pay for. That is not necessarily an education problem. It may be a product or positioning problem.
03
What your decisions are creating
Speed matters, but temporary decisions have a habit of becoming permanent systems.
I examine where the product is accumulating workflow, technical, customer or organisational debt, and whether the speed gained today is creating a disproportionate cost tomorrow. The objective is not perfection. It is making compromises consciously.
04
What you genuinely need to learn
Research is useful when its answer could change a decision.
Without a defined decision, research can become a respectable way to delay action. We identify what is known, what is assumed, what remains uncertain and which unanswered questions are important enough to investigate.
05
How the product reaches the right people
A good product does not automatically create distribution.
We examine how the right customer discovers the product, understands its relevance, experiences its value and decides to continue using it. Positioning, onboarding, timing and distribution are part of the product experience, not activities that begin after the product is finished.
The engagement
From an uncomfortable question to a usable decision.
01
The brief
You complete a structured intake covering the product, its customers, its history, the current problem and the decisions facing the team.
You also provide access to the relevant product, messaging, research, customer feedback, roadmap and available usage information. I do not need everything the company has ever produced. I need the evidence that shaped the decisions being made now.
02
The pressure test
We begin with a focused discussion involving the people closest to the product.
I will ask how the team knows what it believes it knows, where those beliefs came from and what evidence would cause the team to change its position. This is not a workshop designed to produce agreement. It is designed to expose the decisions that require clarity.
03
The independent examination
I review the product through the five diagnostic lenses.
Depending on the engagement, this may include the product experience, onboarding, website, messaging, roadmap, customer feedback, research and existing product data.
04
The Product X-Ray
You receive a written diagnostic identifying the central problem as I currently understand it, the supporting evidence, important gaps in that evidence, assumptions being treated as facts and areas of product, positioning or decision risk.
Recommendations are separated from assumptions. Where the available evidence is incomplete, I will say so.
05
The decision session
We meet for a detailed findings session.
I present what I found, explain how I reached the conclusions and pressure-test the recommendations with your team. The objective is not simply to deliver a report. It is to leave the people responsible for the product able to make the next decisions.
06
The action plan
The engagement concludes with a prioritised plan for the next 30 to 90 days.
You will know what requires action, what requires testing, what can wait and what should probably not be built at all.
What you receive
Something your team can act on.
- Structured intake and evidence review
- Up to three stakeholder discussions
- Independent product and customer journey examination
- Written Product X-Ray diagnostic
- Prioritised stop, fix, test and defer recommendations
- A 90-minute findings and decision session
- A practical 30 to 90-day action plan
- One follow-up advisory call within 14 days
This engagement covers one product, service or defined system.
Additional customer research, technical implementation, interface design, travel or broader organisational work can be scoped separately where required.
What this is not
Not another workshop that ends in a folder.
This is not an outsourced roadmap.
It is not an open-ended brainstorming workshop.
It is not a report designed to confirm that everyone was already right.
It is also not a promise that one change will automatically create growth. Products operate inside markets, companies and customer behaviour that no advisor completely controls.
The purpose of the Product X-Ray is to replace vague concern with a clearer diagnosis and a defensible set of decisions.
Why work with me
I am not removed from the consequences of product decisions. I make them too.
I have spent more than 30 years working across audio, media, technology, education and product.
For more than 18 years, I have worked inside Waves Audio, where I have helped examine, develop, position, launch and improve products used by creative professionals around the world.
I also build my own products.
That matters because I understand what it is like to become attached to an idea, defend a decision, discover that an assumption was wrong and then have to decide what happens next.
I work at the intersection of product behaviour, customer value, positioning, workflow, technology and commercial reality.
Across every engagement
The scope changes. The way of thinking does not.
I examine the assumptions underneath the work, the evidence supporting them and the consequences of the decisions being made.
I look for the difference between what people say the problem is and what their behaviour, product or market appears to be showing.
I separate what is known from what is assumed. Where the evidence is incomplete, I will say so.
The goal is not to produce more activity. It is to make the next decision clearer.
The titles change. The way of thinking does not.
Advisory Triage Call
Not sure which kind of help you need?
Bring one product problem, difficult decision or question about direction.
We will examine what may be sitting underneath it, identify the evidence or assumption that matters most and decide what the most useful next step appears to be.
This is not a disguised sales call. You should leave with a clearer question and a practical next step, even when the right recommendation is not to hire me.
When a Direction Session or Product X-Ray is booked within seven days, the $49 fee is credited against the engagement.
AUD $49
- 30 minutes
- One product problem or difficult decision
- A focused verbal diagnosis
- The evidence or assumption that matters most
- One practical next step
Before you commit more time and money, make sure you are solving the right problem.
Bring the problem you can see. We will begin by looking for the one behind it.