Listen for the workaround

People often describe what is wrong by describing what they have learned to do around it. A spreadsheet maintained after hours, a weekly reconciliation call or a manager who personally approves every exception can reveal more than a formal problem statement.

A workaround is evidence of effort, not automatically evidence of a market opportunity. It may be cheap, dependable and well understood. Replacing it can create more disruption than benefit. The adviser needs to understand why it exists and what it protects.

Ask who maintains the workaround, what happens when they are absent and which failures it prevents. An apparently inefficient manual step may be compensating for poor data, unclear authority or an unreliable upstream system. Automating the step without fixing that context can remove a useful safeguard.

For example, a sales manager may review every proposal because service commitments are inconsistent. A proposal tool could accelerate the inconsistency. A better first intervention might be clear scope boundaries and approval rules for exceptions.

This is also a positioning opportunity. Instead of describing a broad transformation, explain the specific burden you can remove while preserving the protection the workaround provides. That makes the value easier to understand.

Treat the people maintaining the workaround with respect. They often possess the most useful knowledge in the process. A sales story that makes them look foolish may win attention from a sponsor while losing cooperation from the people needed for delivery.