Plate I. Elevation of a semicircular arch. The keystone is shown hatched.
Paynpoints
Every organisation has a few points where the structure stops holding. We find them, name them and set the right piece in place. Then we leave.
I · The method
The name is the point.
Paynpoints is pain points, spelt so that the word stops sliding past. It has nothing to do with payments and nothing to do with loyalty points.
Every business carries a few places where things stop holding together. An order that needs three people to release it. A pitch that describes the company as it was five years ago. A procedures manual nobody has opened since it was written. These are not vague problems of culture or morale. They are specific. They can be located. Once located, they can be fixed.
Most consultancies sell a programme: a diagnostic, a roadmap, a transformation, a retainer. We sell the opposite. We find the one point that is failing, fix that, and stop.
That is the whole method. It is narrow on purpose. A narrow brief is easier to price, easier to finish and easier to judge afterwards. You can see whether the thing we fixed still stands.
II · What we sell
Three offers. Each one ends.
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One
The Survey
Two weeks inside one part of the business. We read the documents, sit with the people and follow the work from start to finish.
You receive a written finding: the points where it fails, ranked by what they cost, with the one that matters most named plainly. Fixed fee.
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Two
The Keystone
We design the piece that is missing and put it in. A decision rule, a document, a handover, a single change to who signs what.
It is built with your people, so that it holds once we have gone. Fixed scope, fixed price, agreed date.
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Three
The Inspection
Six months on, we come back for two days and put load on the structure. Does the fix still stand, or has it been worked around?
You get a short report and, if something has moved, a plain account of why.
III · How we work
Four constraints.
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1
One point at a time.
We do not run programmes. If the survey finds six things, we tell you about six and fix one. The next comes after the first has held.
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2
Everything in writing.
Findings, designs and decisions are set down in documents you own. No slide decks. Nothing that only makes sense with us in the room.
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3
A fixed price and a fixed end.
Every offer is quoted before it starts and has a date on which it finishes. There is no retainer and there is nothing to renew.
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4
We leave.
The measure of the work is what stands after we have gone. If it needs us to keep it up, we have built scaffolding, not a keystone.
IV · Start
Begin with the point that hurts.
Write and tell us, in a paragraph, where the work stops holding. We reply within two working days with a view on whether it is something we can fix and, if it is, what the survey would cost.
No call to book. No form. One paragraph is enough.