Project Scope Definition for Management Consultants

What is the aim of this course?

Consulting firms produce very intangible results embodied in thick presentations. The result of your work will be valuable only if it really solves an important problem for the customer. That’s why it is important to define the scope of the project properly. A well-defined scope will help you make your customer happy. In this course, I will teach you how to define the scope of a consulting project fast and efficiently.

In the course, you will learn the following things:

1. What is a good scope?
2. How to define the scope of a consulting project properly
3. How to use the scope to make your customer happy
4. How to find the real problem that the customer should be solving
5. How the scope definition may change during negotiations

This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion of additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who are now Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that, my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 330 000 students, including people working in EY, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.

I teach through case studies, so you will have a lot of lectures showing examples of analyses and tools that we use. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excel files as well as additional presentations and materials shown in the lectures. Therefore, as a part of this course, you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you or your team in your work.

Why have I decided to create this course?

Defining the scope is crucial for the success of the project and the customer’s satisfaction. You have to be able to listen to the customer, draw conclusions, and present them the scope in an easy-to-understand way. Quite often, you will have to not only rely on the customer’s expectations, but you will also have to dig deeper to find the real problem. Many consulting firms don’t give you the full toolbox that you need. This may lead to huge frustration during consulting projects and a lot of inefficiencies.

Therefore, I have decided to create this course that will help students define and communicate the scope to the customers. The course will give you the knowledge and insight into real-life case studies that will make your life during a consulting project much easier. Thanks to this course, you will know how to define the scope and how to communicate it to potential customers. On top of that, you will also master the techniques that will help you find the real problem that the customer is facing.

To sum it up, I believe that if you want to become a world-class Management Consultant or Project Manager, you have to have a pretty decent understanding of how to define the scope of projects. That is why I highly recommend this course to Management Consultants or Business Analysts, especially those who are about to become Project Managers. The course will help you become an expert in scope definition at the level of McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top consulting firms.

In what way will you benefit from this course?

The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of analyses, tricks, and hints that will significantly improve the speed with which you understand and analyze businesses. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience, as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that, thanks to the course, you will learn:

1. What is a good scope?
2. How to define the scope of a consulting project properly
3. How to use the scope to make your customer happy
4. How to find the real problem that the customer should be solving
5. How the scope definition may change during negotiations

You can also ask me any questions either through the discussion field or by messaging me directly.

How is the course organized?

The course is currently divided into the following sections:

• Introduction. We begin with a little introduction to the course, as well as some general info on how the course is organized
• Essential concepts. Before we move to consulting projects, in this section, we will show you what we generally mean by a scope and how we can define it.
• The scope for consulting projects. In this section, you will learn how you can define the scope for consulting projects. We will look at a general framework and some useful case studies.
• Evolution of the scope. As we have mentioned, the scope will be evolving as you will learn more about the customer and their needs. In this section, we will look at a case study to show you how it may proceed.
• Useful Techniques for finding the real problem. Before you start solving the problem, you have to make sure that the problem you are trying to solve is the real one and not a consequence of other hidden problems. This is especially important when you have to define the scope of a consulting project. In the last section, you will learn what techniques can help you find the problem and create a better scope.

You will also be able to download many additional resources

1. Useful frameworks and techniques
2. Analyses shown in the course
3. Additional resources
4. Links to additional presentations, articles, and movies
5. Links to books worth reading

At the end of my course, students will be able to…

• What is a good scope?
• How to define the scope of a consulting project
• How to use the scope to make your customer happy
• How to find the real problem that the customer should be solving
• How the scope definition may change during negotiations

Who should take this course? Who should not?

• Management Consultants
• Project Managers
• Owners of consulting firms
• Managers
• Startup Founders

What will students need to know or do before starting this course?

• Basic or intermediate Excel
• Basic knowledge of economics
• Basic or intermediate knowledge of finance & accounting