OPS DIAGNOSTICSee the business clearly.
The Ops Diagnostic is a focused, three-week engagement designed to understand how the business actually runs, where friction is getting in the way, and what needs to change for its next stage.
SALT looks across the business as a whole, identifies the issues that matter most, and turns the findings into a practical roadmap for what comes next.
WHO IT'S FORThe business is working. It's just getting harder to run.
The Ops Diagnostic is designed for growing companies that have reached a point where the way they operate needs to catch up with the business they've become.
That might look like:
Too many decisions still landing with the CEO or founder
Unclear ownership across teams or functions
Processes that rely on workarounds or individual knowledge
Limited visibility into performance, capacity or financials
Systems that no longer support the way the business works
Priorities that are clear at the top but harder to carry through the organization
A leadership team that knows something needs to change but isn't aligned on where to start
The Diagnostic creates a shared view of what's happening and what matters most.
THE ENGAGEMENTThree weeks. From questions to priorities.
The Diagnostic is designed to get underneath how the business operates without creating months of consulting work around it.
01 / UNDERSTAND
We start with the business itself: where it's going, how it's structured, what leadership is seeing and where the friction is showing up.
This includes leadership conversations and a review of the information, systems and materials needed to understand how the company operates today.
02 / DIAGNOSE
SALT looks across seven connected areas of the business to understand what's working, where the constraints are and how issues in one part of the organization may be affecting another.
The goal isn't to document every opportunity for improvement. It's to identify the few things that matter most.
03 / PRIORITIZE
The findings are translated into a practical roadmap: what needs attention, what should happen first and what can wait.
The engagement concludes with a working session with leadership to walk through the findings, pressure-test the priorities and agree on what happens next.
THE DIAGNOSTIC 07 Lenses
The lenses aren't assessed in isolation. SALT looks at how they interact, because the source of an operational problem isn't always where the problem first appears.
00 Business + Market
01 Leadership
02 Operating Process
03 Systems + Data
04 Financial Operations
05 People + Capacity
06 Governance + Risk
THE OUTPUTClarity on what matters. And what to do about it.
Every Ops Diagnostic includes:
Findings Report
A clear assessment of what SALT found across the business, including the issues and constraints that matter most.
Prioritized Roadmap
A practical sequence for addressing the findings, with clarity on what comes first, what follows and where leadership should focus.
Leadership Working Session
A facilitated session to work through the findings, align on priorities and establish the path forward.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXTThe roadmap belongs to the business.
The Ops Diagnostic is designed to stand on its own. Leadership can take the roadmap forward internally, with existing teams and resources.
Where the findings point to a need for ongoing operating leadership, SALT may recommend a Fractional COO engagement to help carry the work through.
Fractional COO engagements are only available following the Ops Diagnostic
INVESTMENTA focused engagement with a defined outcome.
Ops Diagnostic engagements start at $14,000 and are completed over three weeks.
Final scope and investment are confirmed before the engagement begins based on the size and complexity of the organization.
FAQA few things worth knowing.
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No. The Diagnostic is designed to be focused. SALT works primarily with the leadership team and requests the people, information, and materials needed to understand how the business operates. The exact approach is determined at the outset.
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The engagement is designed to get a meaningful view of the business without becoming a project in itself. Leadership participates in focused conversations at the beginning of the engagement and a working session at the end, with additional access arranged where needed.
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No. The Ops Diagnostic isn't a compliance exercise or an exhaustive review of everything that could be improved. It's designed to identify the operating issues that matter most and establish a practical order for addressing them.
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You leave with the findings, a prioritized roadmap, and alignment on what happens next.
The work can be carried forward internally, or SALT may remain involved through a Fractional COO engagement where ongoing operating leadership makes sense.
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No. We don't design the outcome of the Diagnostic around SALT being part of it.
The roadmap reflects what the business actually needs and may be carried forward entirely by the existing team.
If the findings point to a role for SALT, we'll discuss it. If they don't, we'll say so.
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Fractional COO engagements begin with the Ops Diagnostic.
It gives SALT the context needed to understand the business and ensures any ongoing work is built around what the organization actually needs.
Where a Fractional COO engagement follows directly from the Diagnostic, a portion of the Diagnostic fee may be applied to the ongoing engagement.
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The Ops Diagnostic is designed primarily for growing companies with $3M–$15M in annual revenue, where increased scale and complexity have started to put pressure on the way the business operates.
However, revenue isn't the only measure of fit. SALT also works with companies outside that range when the operating complexity, pace of growth or stage of the business makes the Diagnostic relevant.
Revenue isn't the only measure of fit. SALT also works with companies outside that range when the operating complexity, pace of growth, or stage of the business makes the Diagnostic relevant.