Services
My consulting practice has evolved organically based on clients' needs and opportunities that arose. Over time, patterns have emerged in what I offer, which I have articulated here as distinct 'services'. In reality, many of these reinforce each other, and often a long-term contract will include multiple services.
Portfolio Reviews
Comparative analysis across a portfolio of projects or interventions to surface patterns, good practices, and strategic direction.
Organizations often have high-level awareness of their portfolios but lack the time and analytical rigour to carefully examine each project, synthesize findings across them, and generate insights for what comes next. I work with clients to define a learning question and scope, then dig into documents and interviews to develop a comparative analysis that surfaces patterns, good practices, and strategic implications.
Example Projects
- WUSC skills for employment review (2020-21): In-depth analysis of 4 projects to understand how skills programming was engaging with market systems
- MSD for Employment landscape study (2024-25): Broad scan of 25+ projects across the field to map the state of practice and identify what's working
- Swisscontact climate portfolio review (2023-24): Cross-project analysis to surface emerging approaches and internal learning priorities
"The findings from this stocktaking greatly influenced the project's approach afterward. He helped us focus on the challenge of driving uptake rather than continuing to produce new products."
Kristin O'Planick, USAID
Learning Clinics
A curated series of learning conversations among a small group of active practitioners over several months — surfacing tacit knowledge, building relationships, and advancing practice.
Clinics bring together people who are actively doing the work — not just talking about it — to learn from each other's real challenges and experiments. The approach requires thoughtful design (framing questions, selecting participants), dynamic facilitation, and often produces publications that synthesize learning for the broader field. I have designed and run clinics at different scales — from industry-wide convenings on topics like leadership and procurement, to internal organizational clinics connecting project teams. I can lead the full process (design, facilitation, writing) or coach an internal lead to take ownership.
Example Projects
- BEAM MSD Procurement clinics (2020): 19 participants across 4 groups, shaping field-wide practice
- BEAM MSD Leadership clinics (2022-23): 42 participants across 8 groups, industry-wide
- ACDI/VOCA Adaptive Partnership clinics (2023-24): Internal organizational clinics, co-lead
- WUSC skills for employment clinics (2024): Transitioned from lead facilitator to advisor role
"Mike's vision and leadership produced tangible results: staff developed stronger understanding of compliance rules, grew more confident advocating for internal change, and drove both project-level strategy shifts and organization-wide policy reforms."
Mark Sevier, U.S Grains & Bioproduct Council
"Mike worked closely with me and other colleagues to ensure we could run these clinics independently on other topics, first with lower level support from Mike and now independently."
Catherine Walker, WUSC
Communities of Practice
Designing and launching learning structures that build community, consolidate technical knowledge, and shape fields of practice over time.
Communities of practice are ongoing spaces that cover a range of topics within a domain — often market systems development or systems thinking more broadly. My role starts with understanding needs and crafting a compelling invitation that mobilizes people to join. From there, I design interactive sessions that bring learning to life, typically with a presentation/breakout structure that keeps engagement high. For internal organizational COPs, I co-create with an internal team of champions — offering advice, experimental session design, co-facilitation, and feedback as they build ownership. For industry-wide COPs, I play a more hands-on facilitation and coordination role.
Example Projects
- MSD for Employment COP (2023-present): Industry-wide community, active and growing
- Practical Action Markets COP (2021-present): Helped design and launch; still active today
- WUSC Systems Thinking COP (2023-present): Co-created with internal champions
- DCED Market Systems Development Working Group: Ongoing support role
"He also helped us design and kick off a Markets Community of Practice, which still supports learning across PA today."
John Chettleborough, Practical Action
"One of the strongest facilitators I have ever worked with, and I have learned so much from how he creatively works with teams to develop learning opportunities both within and between institutions."
Rachel Shah, Mercy Corps
Case Studies
Articulating learning from experience in ways that travel — for internal reflection, external communication, or both.
Case study work focuses on producing clear, readable outputs that help explain what a project or intervention actually did and what it accomplished. The process involves interviews with project staff and review of key documents, then designing a structure that tells the story well. Getting it right requires iteration — working through feedback from technical leads and the project teams closest to the details. I have worked across a range of formats: from short snapshots that capture key lessons quickly, to more substantial case series that explore approaches in depth.
Example Projects
- Swisscontact green transition case studies (2024-25): Series of 6 cases, 4-6 pages each, exploring climate-focused market systems work
- BEAM Exchange MSD snapshots (2017): Short-form cases capturing emerging practice
- Practical Action PMSD case studies (2020): Mini cases for internal and external learning
"He brought strong analytical rigor and strategic insight to a stock-taking of Swisscontact projects... contributed to a series of case studies on systemic approaches to climate adaptation and mitigation."
Christina Grunewald, Swisscontact
Organizational Inquiry
Collaborative analysis of how your organization actually works — structures, incentives, culture, information flows — designed around your specific challenge.
This work is for delving into tricky issues that cut across silos and teams within larger organizations. It starts with a burning question or problem facing leaders. From there, I work with them to frame a manageable research project, map internal stakeholders, and conduct interviews — from senior leaders to front-line staff. I typically work with a small internal committee as my direct counterpart, sharing emerging findings and hypotheses to bring the organization along. The output is an analysis and range of options, tested through internal workshops or presentations that gather feedback and build momentum around solutions. This often leads to longer-term engagements — sometimes spanning several years.
Example Projects
- ACDI/VOCA operational efficiencies assessment (2021): Analysis of compliance and audit culture alongside program strategy; led to new organization-level working groups
- ACDI/VOCA leadership pipelines analysis (2024): Inquiry into incentives and talent development; led to new internal programs
- WUSC/DREEM technical assistance review (2025): Analysis of team structure and operating model for scale-up phase
"Mike delivered immediate and lasting value by leading an organization-wide adaptive management assessment and developing clear, actionable recommendations."
Hayden Aaronson, ACDI/VOCA
"We came through the process with an updated strategy that added value to our thinking, changed our understanding of what we were doing, and most importantly, reflected a nuanced understanding of the different and often divergent perspectives of our core management team."
Ryan Bourque, Triple Line
Initiative Design and Incubation
Supporting internal champions to move ideas into visible organizational initiatives — from concept through design to early implementation.
In my longer-term, multi-year engagements, I help drive forward new initiatives in close collaboration with client counterparts. Sometimes I propose new ideas — such as internal leadership clinics to develop leadership pipelines, or career-focused webinars to build the profile of emerging leaders. Other times, I help take an existing idea and turn it into a fully-fledged program — like a regional business development initiative focused on systemic approaches to climate change. Initiatives often follow from deeper learning — building on findings from an organizational inquiry or portfolio review.
Example Projects
- ACDI/VOCA Adaptive Partnership clinics (2023-24): Internal learning initiative that grew out of earlier organizational assessment work
- ACDI/VOCA Local Leadership initiative (2024): Program to develop emerging leaders, building on leadership pipelines analysis
- Swisscontact Climate Catalysts (2025): Regional business development program focused on systemic climate change
"Mike developed our clinic methodology, facilitator guides, and learning briefs and led our first cohort. Now planning for our 4th cohort, these institutionalised clinics are fundamental to building leadership skills among emerging leaders."
Ailsa Buckley, Swisscontact