The same person does the work at every size. I do the analysis myself and write the narrative myself. What changes is how much of the organisation is involved, and for how long.
The smallest version. One person with something they have to get right, a date already in the diary, and a compact deck at the end of it.
Nobody else in the business needs to be involved unless the client wants them to be. Some clients keep it between us. Others bring me into calls with their team.
The same method with more people in the room. Working sessions rather than a standing conversation, and the argument has to survive more than one set of opinions before it goes anywhere.
More ground gets covered, and it takes longer to agree what the decision actually is.
Occasionally the work does not stop. The most recent example ran eighteen months as a series of discrete engagements, each with its own scope and outcome, and eventually became a retainer.
That is not something I sell up front. It happens when a client keeps finding the next question.
Fixed price. Agreed before the work starts, at every size.
I do the work. The analysis and the narrative are mine. There is no team behind me and nobody junior on the account.
A compact deck. Usually a fifteen slide executive summary, sometimes three slides for a half hour call. Getting those few slides right takes longer than the analysis did.
Where AI does part of the work, I say which part. Some of the analysis and model building uses AI tooling. The judgement, the method and the conclusions are mine, and I will tell you which is which if you ask.