Consultant Methodology — SOP Extraction

Where This Fits in the Engagement

SOP builds are triggered by the project plan. When a build is due, the question is: do we have everything we need to build it? The answer is almost always no — not because information doesn't exist, but because it lives in the process owner's head, distributed across the team, and buried in how things have always been done.

The extraction interview is how you get it out.

This is a structured conversation, not a freeform discussion. You're building a specific document with specific sections. Every question you ask is serving one of those sections. By the end of the interview, you should be able to start the build without asking a follow-up question.

Before the Interview

Know What You're Building

Read the project plan entry for this SOP. Know:

• What process it documents
• Who the likely stakeholders are
• What's currently broken or inconsistent (the constraint this SOP addresses)
• Whether any prior documentation exists

If a pre-written draft exists, read it before the interview. It tells you the principles the client already has. The interview fills in what the draft doesn't: the operational reality, the exceptions, the ownership questions the draft glosses over.

Confirm Logistics

Who needs to be in the room (or on the call)? For most SOPs:

• The process owner (required — they'll own and enforce the SOP)
• 1-2 key executors (recommended — they know the operational details the manager may not)
• The firm owner (for 15-20 minutes at the start, to designate the process owner explicitly)

The firm owner's participation matters for one specific reason: process owner designation. If the firm owner doesn't say "this is your process to own," the process owner's authority is ambiguous. Get this in the first 15 minutes.

Interview Structure

Part 1: Ownership and Scope (10-15 minutes)

Start with the firm owner present if possible. Cover:

Process owner designation: "Who owns this process? Who is the final decision-maker on how it works, and who is accountable when it breaks down?"

Do not accept a vague answer ("we all kind of manage it" or "it depends on the situation"). That's the constraint — the process has no owner. Note it as a gap and resolve it here. If the firm owner can't designate an owner in this conversation, stop. The SOP cannot proceed without an owner.

Scope: "Which clients does this process apply to? All clients, a specific segment?" "Which team members are involved? Just the people in this room, or others?"

Why this process matters: "What breaks when this doesn't work well? What does the team feel when it's running smoothly vs. when it isn't?"

This question produces the language for the Overview section and the "Why This Matters" flag notes in the step cards.

Part 2: The Process Walk-Through (30-45 minutes)

Walk the process from start to finish with the process owner and executors. Ask them to narrate it as if they were walking a new team member through it on their first day.

Your job is to listen for:

• The natural phases or stages they describe
• Where handoffs happen (who passes what to whom)
• Where things get stuck (these are your gate and flag note candidates)
• What they check before they start (readiness conditions)
• What they do when something goes wrong (exception paths)
• What decisions they make and who has authority to make them

Questions for each step:

What: "Walk me through exactly what happens at this step. If I was doing it, what would I open, what would I look at, what would I do?"

When: "When does this step happen? Is there a specific day, a trigger, a dependency on something else finishing?"

Who: "Who does this? Is it always the same person, or does it rotate? Is there a backup if that person isn't available?"

Exceptions: "What happens when [X common problem] occurs? What's the workaround?" "Has there been a situation where this step broke down? What happened?"

Handoff: "When this step is done, what happens next? Who picks it up? How do they know it's ready?"

What to capture: Write down the exact language people use. "I just know it's ready when..." and "the rule I follow is..." and "the thing that kills us is when..." — these are your step notes. The real language is more useful than a polished paraphrase.

Part 3: Status Tracking and Escalation (15-20 minutes)

For processes with team coordination:

Status tags: "How do you know where things stand across the team? Is there a status system in [tool]? What are the states something can be in?"

If they use Financial Cents: "Walk me through the status tags you're using for this process. What does each one mean?"

If they don't have a formal system: "What do you wish you could see at a glance? What would make it obvious which items are on track and which need attention?"

Decision authority: "Who can push a deadline? Who decides if something gets escalated to you or to the CPA? Who approves the communication that goes to a client?"

Escalation: "When does something trigger an escalation? What are the steps? Who does what at each step?"

Part 4: Gaps and Future Items (10-15 minutes)

Parking lot: "Is there anything related to this process that you know needs to be figured out but isn't ready yet? Anything we'd want to build in a future version that doesn't exist today?"

"Any ideas that came up during this conversation that we should capture but not build yet?"

These are your parking lot items.

Pre-written draft review (if applicable): If a draft exists, go through it section by section: "Does this accurately reflect how you actually do it? What's missing? What's wrong?"

Note every discrepancy between the draft and the extraction. The extraction wins.

What Must Be Confirmed Before Closing the Interview

Before ending the session, verify you have:

• [ ] Process owner designated by name — not a role, a person
• [ ] Every team member involved in the process named
• [ ] Each person's role in this specific process confirmed (not just their job title)
• [ ] Phase names or stages confirmed (or process confirmed as linear with no phases)
• [ ] All steps named and sequenced
• [ ] Step ownership confirmed for each step individually
• [ ] Readiness conditions captured
• [ ] At least one exception path or escalation scenario captured
• [ ] Status tags confirmed (if the process uses a tracking system)
• [ ] Decision authority confirmed for at least one decision point
• [ ] Parking lot items captured (or confirmed that none exist)
• [ ] Review schedule: who owns the SOP long-term, when it gets reviewed

If any of these are missing when the interview ends, schedule a short follow-up (15-30 minutes) before the build starts. Do not start the build with open gaps.

Handling a Pre-Written Draft as the Primary Input

Sometimes a draft arrives instead of an extraction interview — the client wrote up their process, or a prior consultant documented it, or the team assembled a quick guide. The draft is useful. It is not sufficient.

What the draft tells you:

• The rules and principles the client believes in
• The terminology they use
• The structure they're thinking in

What the draft doesn't tell you:

• Who actually owns it (drafts often avoid this question)
• What really happens at each step in practice
• Which rules are followed consistently vs. aspirationally
• What breaks and why
• Who the team goes to when something is unclear

When a draft arrives, use it to structure the extraction interview. Go through the draft section by section and ask: "Is this how it actually works? What happens at this step specifically? Who does this?"

A draft-only build is a principles document, not an SOP. It tells the team what the rules are but not how to follow them. The extraction interview is what turns principles into operational steps.

After the Interview

Within 24 Hours

Write up your extraction notes in a format that maps to the SOP sections:

• Process owner and scope
• Team roster for this process
• Readiness conditions
• Phases and steps (draft sequence)
• Gaps identified

Produce the Gap Report

Work through the Required Inputs table in 01-sop-context.md. Every item not captured in the interview notes is a gap. Produce the gap report format from 01-sop-context.md and present it to the advisor.

Advisor Review

The advisor reviews the extraction notes and gap report. They:

• Confirm the process owner designation
• Fill any gaps where they have sufficient context
• Identify gaps that need client follow-up
• Add any advisor observations from the session that didn't surface explicitly (things the process owner said they do that they don't actually do, or tensions between how different team members described the same step)

Build starts only after the advisor confirms the gap report is resolved.

Signals That the Extraction Is Incomplete

Watch for these patterns during the interview. Each one is a signal to ask more specifically.

Vague ownership: "We all kind of handle it." → Ask: "If something goes wrong with this step at 9pm on a Tuesday, who gets the call?" The answer is the owner.

Process described from the tool, not the work: "I just go into Financial Cents and check the tasks." → Ask: "What specifically are you looking at? What tells you something needs attention?" The tool is the interface; you need to know what the person is actually evaluating.

Implicit exceptions: "Usually it works fine." → Ask: "What does 'not fine' look like? Walk me through the last time something didn't work the way it was supposed to."

Missing handoffs: The process owner describes their steps and then jumps to the output. → Ask: "After you do [step X], who does something next? How do they know it's their turn?"

Draft language repeated back to you: If someone describes the process using the exact language from a pre-written draft, they may be reading it rather than describing lived practice. → Ask: "Can you walk me through a specific example — an actual client, what you did?"

Connection to the Engagement

Every extraction interview produces two things: an SOP and advisor insight.

The SOP documents the process. The extraction conversation often surfaces constraint evidence that belongs in the CPM — gaps in ownership, process knowledge concentrated in one person, team dynamics that affect execution, workarounds that signal missing infrastructure.

Take notes on what you're observing about the constraint landscape, not just what's going in the SOP. The extraction interview is a diagnostic opportunity. Use it.