All field notes
MethodMar 2026 · 6 min

What a 90-day rebuild actually touches.

Not everything. The point of a fixed engagement is ruthless scope: the handful of systems that decide whether the function ships.


People hear "rebuild" and imagine a year of change management. A 90-day rebuild is the opposite of that. It's a deliberately short window with a fixed scope, because the things that actually determine whether a people function works are fewer than most teams assume.

Weeks 1–2: the audit

Two weeks inside the function, talking to the people doing the work and the people relying on it. The output is a written memo — current state, the work that isn't getting done, and the plan. No workshop, no offsite. A document a CEO can act on.

Weeks 3–10: the build

Hiring system. Manager cadence. Comp bands and leveling. The four or five policies that matter, written plainly — and a cut list for the rest. We build it and run it live with your team, not in a deck.

If a deliverable can't be handed off and run by your existing team, it wasn't worth building. The test of a rebuild is what survives after we leave.

Weeks 11–13: the handoff

Documentation, training for whoever owns it next, and — if the answer is a full-time leader — a scoped role and help landing them. Then we step out. No retainer creep, no permanent seat.

Filed by
People Partners · Dallas
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