Advisory - Meeting Customers Where They Are (When They’re Carrying Too Much)
Why advisory in 2026 starts with reality, not roadmaps
Let’s build off of our previous post - January, The Month of Carrying Too Much
Most companies don’t enter January looking for a bold new vision.
They arrive carrying weight.
Years of software decisions.
Processes built for earlier versions of the business.
Systems that grew faster than clarity.
Teams expected to do more with less inside environments that were never simplified.
This is the reality many customers are in right now.
Which is why “meeting customers where they are” matters more than ever.
Meeting customers where they are doesn’t mean accepting everything as-is.
It means starting with reality instead of aspiration.
Too often, advisory work begins with future-state diagrams and roadmaps that assume capacity teams don’t have. When people are already overloaded, that approach adds pressure instead of creating progress.
Good advisory work in this moment looks different.
It starts by helping teams understand what they’re carrying:
Which systems are load-bearing versus optional
Where complexity is structural versus self-inflicted
What work continues simply because no one ever had time to question it
Before recommending change, advisory should create orientation.
What season is this team in?
What constraints are real?
What kind of progress would actually feel like relief?
This matters now more than ever.
Companies want real ownership internally.
They want value from the tools they already pay for.
They want focused movement, not another long initiative.
That requires clarity before action.
Advisory isn’t about telling customers what they should do.
It’s about helping them decide what doesn’t need to happen next.
Sometimes that means slowing decisions down.
Sometimes it means narrowing scope.
Sometimes it means stabilizing what already exists before changing anything.
Meeting customers where they are means respecting the weight they’re carrying—and helping them carry less before asking them to move faster.
January isn’t the month for big plans.
It’s the month for honest assessment.
And advisory, done well, is how teams find their footing without adding more to the load.