Bottleneck Diagnosis
Before you invest in the next tool: know where your business really loses time and money.
The bottleneck diagnosis is the fixed entry point into process consulting: three fixed-price tiers, from the €1,500 triage to a guided sprint. Payment after delivery.
30 minutesfreevideo callno sales pitch
Prefer writing? contact@balane.tech
Typical situations
- You face an ERP or CRM decision and want to know whether it solves your problem at all.
- An AI tool is about to be introduced, and you wonder whether it targets the right spot.
- Deadlines get missed, but every department sees the cause somewhere else.
- You want to know what a clumsy process costs you before you commission a project.
- Before an investment you need a second opinion from someone who isn’t trying to sell you anything.
What you get
Triage
€1,500 · 5 business days
A quick second opinion. You get a two-page memo with the suspected bottlenecks, a traffic-light assessment and a clear recommendation to go ahead or stop. Meant for management teams facing an investment decision.
Diagnosis
from €5,900 · 7–10 business days
The full investigation. You get a process map of your business, the five biggest bottlenecks with cause and estimated cost, a recommendation for each, and a 90-day plan with owners and measurement points. Plus a management summary and a closing call.
Diagnosis + sprint
€18,000–45,000 · 6–8 weeks
The diagnosis, followed by guided implementation of the biggest lever. Your metric is measured before the start, there are weekly reviews during the sprint, and the effect is measured again at the end. I share responsibility for the implementation.
Fixed prices, payment after delivery
No open-ended hourly rates, no payment up front. The price is fixed before you commission the work, and you pay only once the results are handed over. Tool recommendations carry no commissions.
Is the new CRM, ERP or AI tool worth it now, or does it solve a problem that sits elsewhere?
Many businesses with 20 to 150 employees ask themselves this. The bottleneck diagnosis answers it in five to ten business days, before you make a big software decision. You don’t get a presentation, you get a process map you can keep working with and concrete levers with estimated costs.
I carry out the diagnosis myself and am your only point of contact. If no clear lever shows up, that is exactly what the result says, and you get the recommendation not to commission a follow-up project.
Find. Change. Measure.
First it becomes clear where your process gets stuck. Then that exact spot gets changed. At the end your own number shows whether it paid off.
- 01Find
Intro call, 30 minutes
Free, by video, no sales pitch. You describe the size of the business, the suspected bottleneck and the decision ahead. Afterwards it is clear whether triage, diagnosis or sprint fits, or whether you need none of them.
Scope and fixed price
A written engagement with fixed deliverables, an NDA and a data-processing agreement. The price is fixed, you pay on delivery. No hidden items.
Discovery in 2–4 sessions
Conversations with key people in sales, operations, IT and management, plus a walk through the systems. Access is read-only and the data is deleted at the end.
Analysis and process map
Processes, tools, data flows and critical hand-offs become visible on a process map. Every assumption about a bottleneck is checked against the data.
Handover of results
You receive the process map, bottleneck list and 90-day plan as files you can keep working on internally, not as a fixed PDF. A closing call puts the results in context.
- 02Change
Optional: guided sprint
If the diagnosis shows a clear lever, the guided implementation of the biggest bottleneck can follow over 6–8 weeks, with weekly reviews. The fixed-price frame stays.
- 03Measure
Measure the effect (in the sprint)
In the sprint your metric is measured before the start and again at the end. Triage and diagnosis end with the recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
There are three tiers, each at a fixed price: the triage for €1,500 in five business days, the diagnosis from €5,900 in 7–10 business days, and the diagnosis with a guided sprint for €18,000–45,000 over six to eight weeks. You pay after delivery. The intro call beforehand is free.
A process map you can keep working on, the main bottlenecks with estimated costs, and a concrete recommendation for each. The diagnosis adds a 90-day plan. You pay after delivery. And if no follow-up project is worth it, the result says so.
Sessions with the people who run the process every day, and read access to the systems where the cases live, such as ERP, CRM or ticketing. You don’t need to prepare any documents. What exactly is needed, you settle in the intro call.
The triage usually within a week, the diagnosis within two weeks, the sprint with a preceding diagnosis mostly within three weeks. If your investment decision is due in ten days, say so in the intro call.
I do, Jonas Höttler, personally, from the intro call to the handover. Where it makes sense, I bring in people I have known for years. I remain your point of contact.
Access is read-only. The data is processed in a separate, isolated workspace and deleted at the end. An NDA and a data-processing agreement are standard. No transfer to third countries, no sharing with software vendors.
Because the bottleneck often isn’t where a tool promises relief. A new CRM won’t fix a clumsy hand-off between marketing and sales. An AI integration won’t replace a missing responsibility. Before a big investment, it pays to look at the place where the work actually gets stuck.
You decide. Your team can carry on with the results on its own, or you implement the biggest lever with me in a guided sprint. In that case the effect is measured against your metric. If no follow-up project is worth it, the result says so.
What I work with
A selection. What matters is what suits your business.
- BPMN-Modellierung
- n8n
- Make
- Odoo
- HubSpot / Salesforce
- Power BI / Metabase
- Python · Datenanalyse
Also part of Consulting & process optimisation
The other areas
- Technology & IT consultingWhich systems you need, which you don’t, and how they fit together. Vendor-independent.
- Custom developmentSoftware, web applications and integrations built around how your business works.
- Automation & AIRepetitive manual work becomes a process that runs by itself. AI where it pays off.
Find out in 30 minutes whether this is worth it for you.
You describe where things get stuck. Afterwards you know whether and how I can help, even if the answer is no.
Jonas Höttler
Founder
30 minutesfreevideo callno sales pitch
Prefer writing? contact@balane.tech