The duration depends on the breadth of the context to be read. A diagnostic on a simple site with a single brand and a single offer does not require the same effort as an environment with multiple product lines, several layers of legacy, a large editorial corpus or significant brand ambiguity.
In practice, expect a multi-phase process:
- context gathering;
- reading of existing assets;
- structural analysis;
- synthesis;
- delivery and trajectory recommendation.
The goal is not to produce a decorative document, but a reading that can be acted upon. That is why we favour a diagnostic that illuminates the next steps rather than a simple report that accumulates observations.
The diagnostic must remain proportionate, yet deep enough to prevent a false start. Its duration should therefore be judged by its function: avoiding several weeks or months of poorly oriented execution.