See the work as it is done.
Study the situation as it is: the work, the systems, the people, and the constraints that will not move just because a new tool arrives.
01 What this requires
A picture you can hand on.
The hold is useful only when it can be inspected, challenged, and used by people who were not in the room.
- Start with how work actually happens, including unofficial paths
- Treat existing systems as the landscape, not as a problem to erase
- Listen for the cost of the current confusion, not only the wish list
- Write down what is known, what is assumed, and what is still open
A stated request is usually a tool. The situation underneath is a contested picture: unofficial paths, tired joins, systems that will not move this year, and a team already carrying more change than it can absorb.
Understanding is not a pile of interviews. It is holding work, systems, people, risk, and time in the same frame until the pressure has a name. Until then, more information is only more noise.
We write down what is known, what is assumed, and what is still open. The unofficial map is taken seriously without being romanticised. Some workarounds are wisdom. Some are debt. You cannot tell which from a generated operating model.
A conversation
If this is the pressure, start with the situation.
You do not need a polished brief. A named constraint is enough to begin.