How we work
Six steps. Here's how it adds up.
What happens after you book a Working Session.
Book a Working SessionEvery MKTNG AI build runs six steps: goals, systems audit, roadmap, foundation, managed operation, customer success. Discovery and Roadmap is the first three, one phase, priced as one. The last two are the relationship.
Step one
Goals
It starts with where you want to go.
We start with the company, in your words. What you want AI to change about how the work gets done, what's true in a year that isn't true now, what's off the table. We'll also ask how your team feels about the tools they already use, because rollout speed depends more on people than on software. Nothing gets scoped in this conversation. You leave it heard.
Step two
Systems audit
Then we document what you're actually working with.
We open the CRM, the email, the shared drives, the spreadsheets, the tools people use when nobody's watching. Where knowledge lives, where it's duplicated, what's stale, what's connected and what isn't. Alongside the systems, we capture where your team sits with AI: who's fluent, who's cautious, who's quietly running their own. That's the map for adoption, not just for the build. Some companies take a day. Some take a week. Discovery is done when the systems are written down.
Step three
Roadmap
Then we write down what gets built, in what order, and what it costs.
The roadmap sequences the work by where the gap between your goal and today costs the most. It starts with a foundation, not an agent. Groundwork is the structured record of the department we're starting in: what's true, how you talk, who you serve, what you won't say, in open files you own that any AI tool can read. Everything else in the roadmap builds on it. Capacity building is on the roadmap too, because a system nobody adopts isn't a system. The roadmap is the first time a number exists, because it's the first time we know what we're pricing. It's probably not the whole journey. It's the first leg, in writing.
Discovery and Roadmap ends here. Everything below is scoped from the roadmap.
Step four
Foundation
Then we build the record, and the first thing that runs on it.
Groundwork gets written for the first department, in the Open Knowledge Format, an open specification from Google Cloud, in files you own. The first system goes live on top of it: an agent, a site, a proposal system, or the assistants your team will use every week. Every send starts with a human approving it, and stays that way until you decide otherwise. This is the part that's delivered like a project, because it is one.
Step five
Managed operation
Then it runs under a service agreement.
The system runs under a defined service agreement: response commitments, uptime, and a monthly tier. Monitoring, knowledge updates, guardrail changes as autonomy is granted, a monthly readout. We review it with you every quarter. This is the step that doesn't end, and it's priced that way on purpose. This is what the category calls managed AI services.
Step six
Customer success
Someone owns it. Your team learns it. Drift gets caught early.
A named owner on your side. Role-based training as an ongoing program, shaped by what we learned about your team in the audit. Checks at 30 days, 90 days, then quarterly. Adoption gets measured, and where it stalls we find out why. When the goal from step one changes, step one runs again.
We run every step on ourselves first.
MKTNG's website, proposals, and Revenue Agent all read from the same Groundwork. When our position changes, we change it once. The BrightWork Revenue Agent has run Ben Olsen's pipeline in Follow Up Boss since June 2026.
It starts with a Working Session.
One conversation with your team about where you want AI to take the company, and what you're working with today. It's step one of six, and the start of Discovery and Roadmap.
Book a Working SessionTell us about your work, and the people it's for.
Questions we get
What is a Working Session?
The first conversation. One session with your team about where you want AI to take the company, what is true today, and what is off the table. It is step one of six, and the start of Discovery and Roadmap.
What is Discovery and Roadmap?
Steps one through three: goals, systems audit, roadmap. One phase, priced as one. It ends with a written roadmap that sequences what gets built, starting with Groundwork for the first department, and puts a number on the first build.
How long does Discovery and Roadmap take?
It depends on what we find. The goals conversation is one session. The systems audit takes as long as your systems take to document, a day for some companies and a week for others. We tell you when we know.
Do we have to buy all six steps?
No. Discovery and Roadmap stands on its own. Steps four through six are scoped from the roadmap, and you decide whether to proceed once you have it.
What is Groundwork?
The structured record of your company that everything we build reads from: what is true, how you talk, who you serve, what you will not say. Written in the Open Knowledge Format, an open specification from Google Cloud, owned by you. It is built for one department first, not the whole company.
Who is our point of contact after launch?
A named person at MKTNG, under the service agreement, with a monthly readout and a quarterly review. That is step five. A named owner on your side is step six.
Do we have to replace our CRM or our tools?
No. We connect to what you have. Nothing gets replaced because it is old, only because it is in the way, and most of what we find, we connect.