Shape the challenge · Select the options · Optimise delivery
Independent value, risk and innovation analysis: calling the numbers as they are, so you know what to build, what to back and what to stop. We establish what your plans, processes and systems are really for, then work out what to keep, improve or remove before you commit.
Our approach
Shape Select Optimise is a value, risk and innovation consultancy. Our discipline is efficiency and optimisation, applied to plans, processes, products and systems. Our foundational methodology is Function Analysis: breaking down what things do, not what they are. Function Analysis has always been a powerful technique, but it’s ideally suited to AI, where agents do things and perform functions. Many AI implementations seek to automate what is already there. However, Function Analysis allows us to decompose and build from the ground up, creating functions that deliver the benefits the organisation is actually seeking.
We map the real function of each part of your business to ensure congruence between intent and design.
We remove what doesn’t serve that purpose first, then optimise, and only where it genuinely helps, automate what remains.
AI is a transformative technology. We test the claims made for it against what you actually need, rather than accepting that it works until it’s shown to.
How we work with you
Fixed-scope engagements, each producing evidence you can act on.
Method & tools
Our function analysis is grounded in a published method, pFAST, and supported by a free online tool you can use yourself. Read the reasoning in the Knowledge section, or start mapping a process in minutes.
A free coaching tool that walks you through the first stage of a FAST diagram: brainstorming functions and refining them into clean verb-noun pairs, with two AI models checking each other’s work. Free, no sign-up.
Open functionanalysis.app ↗A risk-based framework for deciding what AI should do, what to keep under human discernment, and how reliable each function needs to be. Introduces the CARBS assessment and a worked, instrumented example.
Go to KnowledgeAbout
Shape Select Optimise is the consulting practice of Stephen Cresswell, an independent practitioner with more than 20 years’ experience in value management, risk and innovation across some of the world’s most complex programmes. He holds a degree in physics and a postgraduate diploma in strategy and innovation from Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
SSO exists to give mid-sized businesses genuinely independent analysis: a clear, evidence-led read on where value is created, where risk sits, and where innovation is worth the investment, with no incentive to tell you anything other than what the numbers say.
You can read more about Stephen’s background and work at stephencresswell.co.uk.
Contact
Tell us about the process, product or decision you’re wrestling with.
Email
me@stephencresswell.co.uk
Independent value, risk and innovation analysis for mid-sized businesses.
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