Tools: The "Internal Consultant" Framework: Engineering Your Career Sprint by Sprint

The Sprint as a Contract: Earning Your Next "Gig" ## The Retro: Your Quarterly Business Review** ## The Self-Review: Mirror, Mirror ## Beyond the Code: The Relationship Equity ## Summary Table: Employee vs. Consultant In a traditional job, you assume you’ll be there on Monday. In consulting, you’re only as good as your current engagement. Treat every two-week sprint as a fixed-term contract. Most people use Retrospectives to vent or stay silent. Use them as a Strategic Feedback Loop to improve relationships: Positive Feedback (The Value Add): Don’t just say "Good job, team." Frame it as a successful process. "Our new CI/CD pipeline reduced our deployment 'cost' by 20%." Proves you understand the impact of the items you are working on. Improvement Feedback (The Gap Analysis): Frame friction as a business risk. Instead of "I hate these long meetings," try: "The current meeting structure is a bottleneck that reduces our engineering throughput." Consultant’s Edge: Use the Retro to show you aren't just doing the work—you are optimizing the machine that produces the work. Honesty is the consultant’s greatest tool. If you were a CEO paying $200/hour for your own services, would you be satisfied? The Consultant’s Audit: The biggest mistake "order-takers" make is thinking the code is the only deliverable. The code is the commodity; the relationship is the bridge to the next project. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse - The Statement of Work (SOW): Your Sprint Backlog isn't just a list of chores; it’s a legal agreement of deliverables. If you miss a deadline without communication, you’ve "breached" the contract. - The "Rehire" Test: At the end of every sprint, ask yourself: If I had to pitch for the next two weeks of work based solely on my performance in the last two, would this "client" (my manager/PO) hire me? - Reliability is the Product: Consultants get rehired because they remove uncertainty. Be the person whose "In Progress" column never hides a surprise. - Positive Feedback (The Value Add): Don’t just say "Good job, team." Frame it as a successful process. "Our new CI/CD pipeline reduced our deployment 'cost' by 20%." Proves you understand the impact of the items you are working on. - Improvement Feedback (The Gap Analysis): Frame friction as a business risk. Instead of "I hate these long meetings," try: "The current meeting structure is a bottleneck that reduces our engineering throughput." - Consultant’s Edge: Use the Retro to show you aren't just doing the work—you are optimizing the machine that produces the work. - Did I provide a solution, or just a list of problems? - Was my communication proactive, or did the client have to hunt me down? - Did I leave the codebase (the client's asset) better than I found it? If you wouldn't hire "you," it’s time to pivot your strategy. - Stakeholder Empathy: Understand what keeps your Product Owner up at night. Are they worried about a demo? A bug? A board meeting? Solving their stress is what gets you remembered. - The "Liking" Factor: People hire consultants they like and trust. Taking five minutes to understand a teammate’s workflow or offering to help a junior dev isn't "distraction"—it’s C*lient Success Management*. - Visibility: If you do great work but no one sees it, did it happen? Ensure your "client" understands the complexity you navigated and the value you delivered.