JAMES SCHLAUCH · CONSULTING PRACTICE
A senior-led, no-deck consulting practice. Four phases. Working systems and one-page memos as the only deliverables.
Engagements never produce slide decks. Deliverables are working systems and one-page memos. Slides are how junior consultants sell internal politics. Memos are how senior practitioners sell decisions.
Phase 1
Two weeks. James reads the code, runs the evaluation harness, and interviews engineering, product, security, and legal — separately. The deliverable is a written summary of what is real, what is theatre, and what the next sixty days should look like.
A one-page memo the executive sponsor can act on without revision.
Phase 2
Two to four weeks. James drafts the architectural decisions — model selection, evaluation harness, governance, on-call posture — as written ADRs the engineering team owns. Vendor-neutral; existing cloud and identity stack; no new SKUs.
A signed-off design document the team can implement against without further consulting input.
Phase 3
One to two quarters. James embeds with the platform and ML teams as the senior practitioner of record. Production deploys, evaluation harnesses, and audit trails are written into the system, not described from the outside.
Production AI running with a documented rollback path and a named on-call rotation.
Implementation engagements include two on-site visits within 90 minutes of San Diego per month.
Phase 4
Two to four weeks. James transitions ownership to the internal senior practitioners hired or developed during the engagement. A written handoff memo, an updated runbook, and a 90-day check-in calendar — and James leaves.
An internal team that owns the system and a relationship that is honest about being over.