Mountaintop
Strategies Corp.
An Outcome-based Engagement Model
Operational Diagnostics
Research & Discovery
Ideation
Concept, Prototyping & User Testing
Build & Deployment Management
Mountaintop can provide end-to-end support and management of your initiative or support a single aspect, work stream or phase of a program.
Consulting engagements are custom-designed with a combination of the tactics, processes and deliverables listed below.
Ideation
Facilitation & Concept Mgmt
Leveraging strategies from Lean Product Design, product innovation is based on a customer-centric model that addresses opportunities to address unmet needs and wants
Representative Services include:
-
Translation of business goals into metrics
-
Target segmentation/prioritization facilitation
-
Cost of customer analysis
-
Behavioral data strategy definition
-
Persona definition
-
Competitive research and analysis
-
Unmet needs analysis and Kano modeling
-
Value proposition definition
Customer Experience Design
Built on a framework that leverages Design Thinking, Lean Product Design and other Agile concepts, Cx services focus on getting the right product to the right customer at the right time
Representative Services include:
-
Translation of business goals into business metrics
-
Customer value analysis
-
Persona definition
-
Customer journey mapping
-
Process mapping and optimization
-
Experience prototyping
-
User testing
IT Strategy & Transformation
Combining transformation and change management best practices with lean organizational concepts, these services focus on workflow efficiency and throughput and the required organization and role definitions required for sticky adoption
Representative Services include:
-
Software development lifecycle design & optimization
-
SDLC artifact, template and work-aid creation
-
Vendor engagement/management review
-
Metrics and reporting strategies
-
Best practices can be applied through staffing key roles
Program Management
We focus on critical risk factors like interdependency management, metrics-based progress reporting and ensuring on-time operational readiness.
Representative Services include:
-
Schedule and budget creation and management
-
Resource allocation and conflict management
-
Interdependency management
-
Metric-based performance, progress and risk reporting
-
Communication, training and continued alignment
-
Operational readiness reviews
Project Management
Project management focuses on not just reporting status, but changing it. On smaller projects or work streams on larger efforts, the emphasis is on realistic planning, removing team obstacles and accelerating the delivery of value to the business stakeholders
Representative Services include:
-
Work stream time and LoE estimation
-
Sprint planning
-
Resource assignments
-
Time tracking and burn-down analysis
-
Status reporting and issue resolution
-
Risk assessment and resolution
-
Coordination with other work streams
Vendor Management
Tactics for managing vendor deliverables and services must be integrated into early project planning and scope definition efforts, often one before vendor engagement
Representative Services include:
-
Initial service/product function scope definition
-
RFP/RFQ preparation and communications
-
Vendor engagement management
-
Vendor selection facilitation
-
Contract and performance criteria development
-
Vendor management
-
Deliverable audit and compliance management
Requirements Definition
Requirements must convey what functionality end users require - written in unambiguous terms with clear acceptance/success criteria described. Requirements (Product Backlog and User Stories) must be organized by a functional taxonomy adopted by downstream SDLC artifacts.
Representative Services include:
-
Business context definition
-
Persona definition
-
Process mapping
-
Business & functional architecture design
-
Product Backlog design
-
Detailed User Story with acceptance criteria creation
-
Fit-gap and configuration requirements mapping
Acceptance Test Management
When properly defined and managed, acceptance testing can be a valuable stage of the SDLC creating opportunities for business buy-in, end-user adoption, training, documentation prototyping and quality checks.
Representative Services include:
-
Translation of functional taxonomy to test strategies
-
User Acceptance Test plan development
-
Design of end-to-end test plan
-
Alignment of test phases and SDLC
-
UAT execution management
-
Operational readiness assessment facilitation