Executive decision deck
The consequential findings, business risks, root causes, and evidence behind your recommended investments.
POWERPOINT + PDFTHE SUPPORT OPERATIONS DIAGNOSTIC
Make the right Support investments for your next stage of growth.
Before you hire, reorganize, outsource, or automate, get the evidence to decide what to fix, fund, defer, or avoid.
In four weeks, Cole Operations Advisory evaluates the full Support operating system and gives B2B software executives a clear basis for the next decision.
Personally led by Joshua Cole. Independent. Vendor-neutral.
FROM EVIDENCE TO ACTION4 WEEKS
Operating data
Workflows & cases
Stakeholder insight
The whole
operating system.EIGHT CONNECTED LENSES
operating system.EIGHT CONNECTED LENSES
YOUR EXECUTIVE DECISION PACKAGE
What to fix, fund,
defer, or avoid.
Clear decisions begin with a connected view.
Senior operating experience
behind every recommendation.
Amazon Advertising
Sizmek
Joshua’s previous leadership roles
Meet your advisor
THE DECISION IN FRONT OF YOU
More budget.
More escalations.
Still no clear answer.
Support is consuming more money and executive attention. The next move feels urgent. The evidence behind it is harder to find.
01
Headcount grows. Service stays unpredictable.
Backlogs and resolution times still fluctuate, and the capacity assumptions are difficult to trust.
02
The same problems cross the same desks.
Customer escalations keep drawing in leadership, Product, and Engineering without resolving the underlying causes.
03
The proposed solution gets ahead of the diagnosis.
Hiring, outsourcing, a new structure, or AI is on the table. Leadership needs to know which choice the operating evidence supports.
That is when to bring COA in.
ONE FOCUSED ENGAGEMENT
Four weeks to a
better-founded decision.
A fixed-fee executive diagnostic across your full Support operating system. Built around the choice your leadership team needs to make.
WHAT ARE YOU CONSIDERING?
THE CAPACITY DECISION
Is added headcount justified—and where should it go?
Examine demand, workload, coverage, and workflow constraints to determine whether more people are the right investment.
Your leadership team leaves with:
EDITABLE FILES + PDF COPIESEvidence & action workbook
Your operating baseline, an eight-area scorecard, and prioritized recommendations with confidence, dependencies, and suggested owners.
EXCEL + PDFPrioritized 90-day roadmap
What to stabilize now, build next, and prepare for later—with an executive readout and a working handoff to your Support leader.
SEQUENCED LEADERSHIP DIRECTION50% before kickoff. 50% due by Business Day 10 and before Week 3 synthesis.
THE WHOLE OPERATING SYSTEM
Look beyond
the ticket queue.
Support performance is shaped by how work moves between people, teams, systems, and decisions. The diagnostic examines eight connected areas.
Your Support leader is a partner throughout the engagement.
01Service model
Customer segmentation, entitlements, channels, hours, SLAs, tiers, severity definitions, and coverage.
02Demand & capacity
Volume, ticket mix, contact drivers, backlog, aging, seasonality, workload, and staffing assumptions.
03Organization & talent
Roles, management structure, skills, geography, internal and outsourced work, onboarding, proficiency, and ownership.
04Workflow & escalation
Intake, triage, routing, handoffs, technical escalation, incident response, Engineering engagement, and closure.
05Performance & governance
KPIs, targets, reporting quality, operating reviews, accountability, project priorities, and decision mechanisms.
06Knowledge & quality
Knowledge creation and reuse, self-service, case quality, coaching, quality assurance, repeat contacts, and learning loops.
07Technology & AI readiness
Ticketing configuration, data integrity, integrations, automation opportunities, AI suitability, prerequisites, and controls.
08Cross-functional interfaces
Support’s relationships with Customer Success, Product, Engineering, Sales, and leadership, including customer-risk and product-feedback loops.
A CLEAR PATH TO THE ANSWER
Understand. Evaluate.
Decide with confidence.
Operating data, representative cases, workflows, and stakeholder conversations form the basis of every recommendation.
Establish the baseline
Align on the business decision. Interview stakeholders, review artifacts, and validate the available data.
Analyze the system
Examine the eight assessment areas and connect visible symptoms to operating constraints.
Evaluate the decisions
Test root causes, compare investment options, validate preliminary findings, and sequence priorities.
Deliver the direction
Present the deck, workbook, and roadmap. Conduct the executive readout and Support-leader handoff.
Kickoff follows agreement, initial payment, and readiness of data and stakeholders.
YOUR ADVISOR
Joshua Cole
Founder & Principal
Cole Operations Advisory Based in Alpharetta, Georgia
Working with teams across regions.
Working with teams across regions.
JUDGMENT BUILT IN THE WORK
An operator’s view.
An independent answer.
Joshua led technical Support organizations at Amazon Advertising and Sizmek, connecting customer problems with the teams and decisions needed to address them.
At Amazon Advertising, his work spanned customer escalations, incident response, staffing and capacity planning, Product feedback, shared workflows, and management reviews.
At Sizmek, he led Support in the Americas and helped shape operating practices across global teams. Across both organizations, he worked with Customer Success, Sales, Product, Engineering, Legal, and executive leadership.
COA brings that experience to your decision: understanding where problems originate, how they move between teams, and which operating investments are justified.
Joshua personally leads the diagnostic—from discovery through the final readout.
BEFORE WE BEGIN
A few practical
questions.
Who is the diagnostic built for?
Scaling B2B software and technical-platform companies, typically with Support organizations of approximately 10–75 people. The executive sponsor is usually a COO, CTO, CCO, CRO, or equivalent leader, with the Support leader as the day-to-day partner.
What does our team need to contribute?
You provide the available operating data, relevant materials, access to stakeholders, and timely feedback. Expected involvement is approximately 2–3 hours for the executive sponsor, 5–8 hours for the Support leader, 45 minutes per interview participant, and 2–4 hours for the data or operations owner. The final executive readout is 60–90 minutes.
Does the engagement include implementation?
The engagement delivers the diagnostic and executive decision package. Implementation, interim leadership, staff augmentation, and platform reconfiguration are outside its scope. Your team receives a sequenced 90-day leadership roadmap and working handoff.
What if the operating data is incomplete?
Data quality is assessed at the start. Findings distinguish facts, interpretations, and limitations. The scorecard uses “insufficient evidence” where appropriate, so leadership can see what is known and what still needs to be established.
How are scope and payment handled?
The $24,500 standard fee covers one defined Support organization over four weeks. $12,250 is due before kickoff; the remaining $12,250 is due by Business Day 10 and before Week 3 synthesis. Expanded scope requires a written change order.
START WITH THE DECISION
What is the next
Support investment
you need to get right?
Share what you want to understand or what decision you’re considering. Joshua will follow up to arrange a Diagnostic Fit Call and determine whether the engagement fits.
joshua@coleoperationsadvisory.com A direct conversation with the person doing the work.