Consulting Storyboard for Strategy Engagements

In today’s complex and competitive environment, the difference between a strategy that moves forward and one that gathers dust often comes down to how it is communicated. A well-structured narrative, anchored by a clear storyboard, can transform a set of insights into a meaningful, actionable plan.

In today’s post (and associated video if you prefer to watch versus read), we will talk about the consulting technique that creates Pixar magic. We will explore why storyboarding is at the heart of effective consulting engagements. By understanding how to build and refine a compelling story, you can turn scattered data and analysis into a catalyst for meaningful change.

An effectively designed consulting storyboard allows you to showcase your firm’s credibility, ability to think clearly and creatively, communication in a concise manner, and ability to develop insights others can’t. And, of course, you can use consulting storyboards outside of consulting.

In fact, it can be an even more powerful tool to use outside of consulting because it is so rarely used.

Storyboard matters in consulting studies because useful insights mean very little unless they can be woven into a compelling story. Critical insights that are not presented as a story generally fail to get any traction with a client. In fact, that is one reason strategy studies collect dust on a client’s desk: they did not present a clear message.

When one of StrategyTraining.com’s partners, Michael, was a corporate strategy partner, he pretty much drove teams a little crazy to constantly refine the story. He still does that. If you are following the Market Entry Strategy study (one of the step-by-step consulting studies we released on StrategyTraining.com to help train our clients and members), you would have seen us push for a crisp and compelling story. We do the same on the current Power Sector (Corporate Strategy & Transformation) study (another step-by-step consulting study we released for our clients and members to help them develop strategy, problem-solving, leadership, transformation, and communication skills). We just push and push for the best story out of the data. A great storyboard will get the client to act.

That’s exactly why you should be looking into using a consulting storyboard: to create a compelling story that will convey the key message to your client (internal or external) and will get the client to act.

And that is what you want at the end of the day.

Where a storyboard fits in a consulting strategy study

Boiled down to the basics, the business consulting strategy engagement structure can be explained as follows.

• First, the key question the team needs to answer in the engagement is determined.
• The key question has to be split into smaller questions in a logical format. This allows the team to develop a decision tree.
• The decision tree has to meet some criteria, including:

1) It has to be mutually exclusive.
2) It has to be collectively exhaustive.

There are two other key criteria to be met, and that is taught in our programs on strategytraining.com, though if you stick to the MECE rule, you will be off to a good start.

• Based on the decision tree, the hypotheses are developed.
• The consulting storyboard is the message the engagement team delivers to the client, using the decision tree and hypotheses that have been developed, and it is based on the anticipated results of the consulting project.
• Next, the team develops analyses to test each hypothesis.
• Based on the results of the analyses, the hypotheses are proved or disproved, and the consulting storyboard is refined.

Keep in mind that strategy engagement is an iterative process and can be messy. In fact, it is usually messy.

Finally, the idea of using an objective function works in almost all types of strategy and operations engagements but does not work in corporate strategy. In corporate strategy, a very different approach is used because those engagements are different. That will be covered in a different article since corporate strategy studies are so rare. And it is also covered in our advanced strategy training programs, including Corporate Strategy and Transformation Study.

What is a storyboard?

To explain the management consulting storyboard concept, let’s use an example from the animation industry. Before producing detailed animations and more, the animation team must first agree on the story.

The animation team gathers together in a room and takes blank pieces of A4 paper. They write out a short 10-word description of a scene on the top of the page and produce a rough 15-second pencil sketch to outline the animation that could go into this part of the movie.

In all, they can produce about 30 to 120 such A4 pages, stick them on a wall in sequence, and everyone will be able to follow the story. This allows the animation team to debate the story and messaging without expensive animation work, which would definitely change as the story changes.

To extend this analogy to a management consulting storyboard, the team needs to prepare a story of their message so that everyone in the team can understand their thinking and provide feedback. The management consulting storyboard is basically the headlines of the presentation, which summarize the anticipated results from the work stream or the entire strategy study.

In the management consulting industry, these kinds of storyboarding presentations can prove useful to everyone, from seasoned veterans to aspiring consultants trying to improve a crucial set of skills for their consulting careers. It helps visualize the key takeaways and create a presentation for the client to see where they are and where they’re going.

A disciplined approach to consulting storyboarding can help your insights stand the test of client scrutiny and move the client toward decisive action. By adhering to this powerful methodology, you can elevate your role from a passive management consultant that clients often joke takes their watch and tells them the time, to a trusted advisor.

We teach in depth how to correctly do consulting storyboards in our step-by-step studies on StrategyTraining.com (Insider or Legacy membership level). In fact, by working through our programs, you will have a stronger consulting skillset than most consultants working for major firms because at those firms, it is highly unlikely you will pick up even 25% of the powerful skills we teach because the transfer of knowledge occurs from partner or talented engagement manager down the pyramid and very few high performing consultants will take the time to train people reporting to them beyond what is absolutely required for team members to perform particular tasks on a particular study. This is for a good reason: top-performing consultants should focus their time on serving clients, not training people on the entire set of consulting partner skills.

And as I mentioned, these skills are even more powerful outside of management consulting. And most of our members are not in consulting and using the skills with outsized results in their respective fields.

If you are ready to strengthen your narrative capabilities and sharpen your ability to put together consulting storyboards, along with developing many other powerful skills few people in the world possess, we invite you to join our Insider or Legacy membership. And if you are running a consulting firm, keep in mind that together, we can transform your consulting practice into a true engine of value and growth.

If you’re an Insider or Legacy member, step-by-step studies and other advanced programs are available in your account on StrategyTraining.com.

Not a member yet? Enroll here: www.strategytraining.com (scroll to membership options and select Insider or Legacy).

And if you want to learn through reading, we recommend you start from our advanced strategy manuals not available anywhere else other than within the Strategy Control Room Advanced. This is our huge internal reading library with advanced manuals, full studies, million-dollar winning proposals, and centers of excellence. Enroll here.

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Kris Safarova
FIRMSconsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com