Teamwork and peer learning for smarter consulting

When you have a good team, hitting project milestones is the easy part in consulting (even if we say so ourselves). The tricky part lies in combining this delivery with personal growth for every team member. This is something we must consider to make our consulting approach work in the long run. Two of our consultants, Robin and Matthias, share their perspective on project collaboration, the support from their principal Frederik, and finding the balance between autonomy and teamwork.

 “We’re currently handling multiple projects for an international retailer,” Matthias explains. “It builds on our existing relationship through previous work with this client, which included projects like developing their IoT strategy. That track record helped us earn their trust and credibility. Our project sponsor brought us on board to take a broader look at their organization and help develop a new overarching tech team, kickstart initiatives and secure clear early wins.”

“This is our bread and butter,” Robin adds. “We’re balancing end-user needs, technical requirements and financial constraints to develop a set of best practices, tools and systems that can be implemented across different regional markets, all while carefully managing our client’s stakeholders. A project of this scope demands substantial analytical capacity: this is why we currently have about five FTEs working with the client.”

A common challenge in larger projects is managing handovers when new team members join in a supporting or replacement role. “This is a well-known pain point that can affect both sides of the consulting equation when not handled efficiently,” Robin says. “Organisations obviously want to minimise delays when a new consultant takes over. At the same time, our consultants are also eager to get to grips with new subject matter and company-specific knowledge as soon as possible and with maximum efficiency. That’s where we can confidently rely on our team’s innate strengths: each consultant brings relevant academic and sector expertise and is adept at absorbing new information quickly and accurately. When combined with our structured training program and the specific onboarding context, this makes handovers much smoother. It’s a win-win: our consultants spend less time ramping up, and our clients can rest assured that no knowledge is lost in translation.”

While strong independent work is important, effective teamwork is even better. “Large projects spanning multiple domains are by definition more challenging to manage,” Matthias adds. “This is where disciplined project ownership makes all the difference. Each of our consultants typically leads their own track in a product owner role, handling their own analyses. The glue that holds these individual efforts together is Frederik, one of Addestino’s longest-serving principals. Frederik brings a ton of industry expertise and is the person who aligns our detailed analyses with the client’s broader mission and long-term vision. This kind of feedback mechanism is crucial, as we pride ourselves on driving real change, rather than delivering one-off analyses that leave loose ends. Frederik helps shape our thinking and coaches consultants throughout every stage of the project. We don’t rely on daily meetings; instead, we focus on flexible collaboration, with quick check-ins or escalations when needed – often during our weekly Friday in-office workday. In any client project, the purpose and project goals are what counts, and Frederik excels at estimating lead times and throughput – an invaluable skill in a team lead.”

“Our individual analyses tend to be relatively short-term projects, so working at Addestino means constantly getting up to speed on new input, content, and client data,” says Matthias. “If you love diving into new topics, subjects, and industries and rotating between new challenges every few months, this is the right environment for you. Stakeholder management, interviews and presentation storytelling: everything comes together in our projects, creating strong learning opportunities.”

“Peer learning is another key aspect. We’re all aware of our personal strengths, but leave our egos at the door. It’s the perfect mindset and environment to learn from one another, whether through hands-on collaboration or even casual watercooler chats about other projects. There’s always something new.”