A structured diagnostic for newly appointed technology leaders who need an honest picture of what they’ve inherited — before committing to a direction.
You’ve stepped into a role where the landscape doesn’t match what you were told during the interview. The board is watching. The pressure to commit to a direction is building. And the cost of getting the first big call wrong isn’t a setback — it’s the kind of exposure that ends tenures.
This diagnostic was built for that moment.
Every new technology leader walks into a version of the same situation: technical debt that wasn’t disclosed, vendor contracts that don’t make sense, organizational dynamics that weren’t visible from the outside, and a board that expects a plan before you’ve had time to understand the terrain.
The instinct is to move fast. Pick a direction. Show momentum. But the wrong call — made publicly and early — creates exactly the kind of exposure you can’t walk back.
Generic consulting firms will hand you a framework built for someone else’s organization. Vendor-led assessments will arrive at conclusions that serve the vendor. Large firms will send a senior partner to win the work and a team of juniors to deliver it.
You don’t need a faster plan. You need a true picture of what’s actually underneath you — before you commit.
What you receive
The diagnostic produces five integrated deliverables designed to give you decision-grade clarity in your first 100 days.
A complete view of your inherited technology landscape — the technical debt, the decisions that were made before you arrived, and the dependencies nobody documented.
A prioritized assessment of where you’re exposed — what needs immediate attention, what can wait, and what’s been flagged as urgent by people with the wrong incentives.
A clear read on the organizational dynamics — who holds informal power, where the unspoken agreements live, and which relationships will determine whether your early moves succeed
or stall.
A sequenced set of early moves — what to do first, what to deliberately leave alone, and how to build credibility with the board while you’re still learning the organization.
A defensible story you can take to your board and executive team — one that frames where the organization stands, what the priorities are, and why.
A confidential session to understand your situation, your constraints, and what you actually need to know — not what a standard assessment template says you should ask.
We assess your inherited landscape across four dimensions: Technical, Social, Political, and Operating systems. This is the part most assessments skip — and the part that determines whether your strategy survives contact with reality.
We synthesize findings into the five deliverables above — each built to be usable immediately, not filed away as a reference document.
We work with you to build and pressure-test the narrative you’ll take to your board and executive team. This isn’t a slide deck handoff — it’s a working session where we help you own the story.
Typical engagement: 6–8 weeks / $200K–$350K
Typical engagement: 6–8 weeks
Our advisors are former CIOs, CTOs, and senior technology leaders. They’ve inherited the same tangled landscapes, faced the same board pressure, and made the same calls you’re being asked to make now. At any given time, Acacia fields a team of 10–30 former operators working directly with clients — not as background advisors, but embedded in active engagements, driving outcomes alongside your team.
We have no product to sell, no platform to implement, no commission on what you choose. Every recommendation is based on your context alone. When we tell you something can wait, it’s because it can — not because we don’t have a solution to sell you.
This isn’t a general technology assessment repurposeaThis isn’t a general technology assessment repurposed for new leaders. The diagnostic was designed specifically for the first 100 days — the window where every decision carries disproportionate weight and the difference between inherited risk and self-created risk is hardest to see.d for new leaders. The diagnostic was designed specifically for the first 100 days — the window where every decision carries disproportionate weight and the difference between inherited risk and self-created risk is hardest to see.
Most conversations begin the same way — a technology leader who just stepped into a new role, or one who’s been carrying a problem they can’t get a straight answer on. We’ll tell you honestly whether this diagnostic is the right fit for your situation.
