Frequently asked questions

A Discovery Sprint is a structured 60-minute diagnostic session designed to give you a precise understanding of where your business stands on GEO visibility, AI search presence, or process automation — and what the most effective path forward looks like for your specific situation.

It is not a sales call. It is not a pitch. It is a paid, expert-led conversation that ends with a written document in your hands, regardless of whether you choose to work with us further.

It is for decision-makers who are asking one or more of these questions:

• Why is our business not appearing when potential clients use AI

tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google Gemini to search for what we offer?

• We know our digital presence needs work — but we don’t know where

to start or what will actually move the needle.

• We are wasting time on repetitive internal processes that should

be automated — but we haven’t had the structured conversation to define what to fix first.

If any of those feel familiar, the Sprint is the right starting point.

Because a free call produces nothing you can use. The Sprint is a paid professional engagement that produces a specific, written deliverable — a Sprint Summary document delivered to you within 48 hours of the session.

That document contains our diagnosis of your situation, the root cause of the problem as we see it, a clear recommendation, and everything you need to make an informed decision about next steps. It is a piece of work, not a conversation that disappears.

We also invest 90 minutes of preparation before we speak with you — researching your business, your current digital presence, and your competitive landscape — so that the 60 minutes we spend together are as precise and useful as possible.

The Sprint fee is the right investment for the right client. If you are not yet sure, read through this document and then reach out. We will tell you plainly whether the Sprint makes sense for your situation.

Before every Sprint, we spend 90 minutes researching your business specifically. This covers:

• Your company’s current AI search visibility — we test how you

appear (or don’t appear) when relevant queries are run on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI tools.

• Your website — structure, how recently it has been updated,

whether it contains the technical signals that AI search engines use to understand and cite a business.

• Your presence across third-party platforms — Google Business

Profile, industry directories, review sites.

• Your competitive landscape — which businesses in your category

are appearing where you are not.

We arrive at the session with an informed, evidence-based view of your situation. Our first question will reflect that preparation.

When your Sprint is confirmed, we will send you three short questions to reflect on beforehand. No lengthy forms, no briefs — three focused questions:

• What is the primary problem or opportunity you want to address in

our session?

• What have you already tried, and what happened?

• If this problem is solved in 90 days, what does that make

possible for your business?

You can reply by email or simply bring your thoughts to the call. Ten minutes of reflection is enough. The more specific your answers, the more productive the session will be.

The decision-maker — the person who can say yes to acting on the findings without needing to refer the decision upwards. This does not have to be a technical person. It should be the person who owns the outcome.

If that decision involves sign-off from others, that is fine — but please let us know before the session so we can ensure the Sprint Summary is structured in a way that supports your internal conversation.

None whatsoever. The Sprint produces a written summary and a recommendation. What you do with that is entirely your decision.

Some clients book a follow-up conversation. Some proceed directly to a project proposal. Some take the summary internally and act on it themselves. All of these are valid outcomes.

The Sprint is designed to give you clarity — not to create pressure. If our recommendation is not the right fit for your situation, we will say so.

The 60-minute session follows a clear structure. You will know at the start exactly how the time is being used:

• Opening (approximately 8 minutes): we set the agenda together,

confirm who is involved in decision-making, and establish what a successful session looks like for you.

• Discovery (approximately 35 minutes): a structured conversation

covering your current situation, where the biggest gaps or frustrations are, what these gaps are costing your business, what has already been tried, and what you are ultimately trying to achieve.

• Synthesis and recommendation (approximately 13 minutes): we share

our read of the situation — including the root cause as we see it, not just the surface problem — and give you a clear directional recommendation.

• Close (approximately 7 minutes): we confirm the next step and the

timeline for your written Summary.

We run to time. The session will not drift past 75 minutes.

Our questions fall into five areas, all focused on understanding your situation with precision:

• Current state — how your business is currently managing its

digital presence or internal operations, and who owns it.

• Where the gaps are — specifically where things break down and

what frustrates you most about the current situation.

• The cost of the problem — what the gap is costing you in real

terms: revenue, time, missed opportunities, competitive position.

• What has already been tried — any previous agency work, internal

efforts, or tools that have been deployed and why they didn’t hold.

• What you are trying to achieve — if this is solved in 90 days,

what does that unlock for the business?

These are not trick questions. They are designed to surface the information we need to give you an accurate, useful diagnosis — not a generic one.

No. The 60 minutes are used entirely to understand your situation. Our recommendation comes at the end of the session, after we have listened, and it will be specific to what you have described — not a standard package walk-through.

If we believe a particular engagement is not the right fit for your situation, we will say so and explain why.

That is more common than you might expect, and it is not a problem. Part of our job is to help you quantify things that feel vague — for example, if you are not sure what the gap is costing you, we will work through a rough estimate together based on what you do know.

Uncertainty about the answer to a question is itself useful information. It often tells us where the real problem is.

Only if you give explicit consent before the call. If recording would be useful for your internal team, let us know when we confirm the session and we will arrange it. If you prefer not to record, the session proceeds as a private conversation and the written Summary serves as your record.

We will not. The session is designed to cover all the ground we need within 60 minutes. If a particular topic requires more depth than the session allows, we will note it explicitly in the written Summary and address it in our recommendation.

If you come to the session with a specific technical question or a piece of information you want us to review, let us know when we confirm the booking and we will factor it into the agenda.

The Sprint Summary is a written document delivered to you within 48 hours of the session. It is the primary deliverable of the Discovery Sprint — a professional diagnostic document that captures our expert read of your situation and what to do about it.

It is not a transcript of the conversation. It is not a generic report. It is written specifically for your business, in our voice, with our assessment — including where our read of the situation differs from the way you framed it. That difference is often where the most useful insight lives.

The Summary is structured in four sections:

• Situation as we understand it — a precise synthesis of your

current state, written in direct, expert language. If there is a gap between how you described the problem and how we interpret it, we name that clearly.

• Root cause and cost of inaction — the underlying reason the

problem persists, and a concrete estimate of what staying in the current state is costing your business annually. We use your own numbers where possible, or a reasoned estimate where you were not certain.

• Our recommendation — the specific engagement we believe addresses

the root cause, with the reasons why it fits your situation. We also state what we would not recommend in your case, and why.

• Decision framework — the timeline, the key success metrics, and a

clear next step. One action, one date.

The document is typically three to four pages. Every sentence is there for a reason.

Yes. The Summary is prepared exclusively for you and contains our assessment of your business situation. It is not shared with any third party without your written consent.

If you need to share it internally — with a board, a leadership team, or a partner — you are free to do so. We can also add a one-page executive briefing to the front of the document if that would help your internal conversation. Just let us know.

That is a conversation worth having. Our diagnosis is based on the research we do before the session and what you tell us during it. If we have misread something, we want to know.

The Summary is the start of a conversation, not a final verdict. If a follow-up call would be useful to discuss the findings, we are happy to arrange one.

Within 48 hours of the session. In most cases, you will have it the following morning.

We send it as a PDF by email, with a short personal note referencing something specific from our conversation. It will not arrive as a template with your name inserted.

That is entirely up to you. The Summary contains one clear recommendation and one suggested next step. The three most common paths clients take:

• They book a short review call to discuss the findings and confirm

whether they want to move to a proposal. We offer two date options for this when we send the Summary.

• They share the Summary internally and come back to us once they

have discussed it with their team.

• They take the Summary and act on its findings independently —

without engaging us further. That is a legitimate outcome and we write the document knowing it may be used that way.

There is no expiry on the Summary and no deadline to respond.

We send you a scoped proposal within 24 hours of you confirming you would like to move forward. The proposal is specific: it names exactly what is in scope, what the phased delivery looks like, what we need from you as prerequisites, and what success looks like at the end.

Nothing begins until the proposal is agreed and signed. There are no hidden phases, no scope creep by default, and no work that starts before you have confirmed it in writing.

That happens. Timing, budget cycles, and internal priorities do not always align with when a problem becomes clear. The Summary remains valid and the recommendation does not change.

We suggest a check-in at the point when circumstances change. We keep a record of every Sprint and will pick up the conversation with full context whenever you are ready.

No. We send the Summary, we offer a follow-up call, and we follow up once by email if we have not heard back. After that, the next move is yours.

We do not use high-frequency sales sequences. If you are not ready to move forward, we would rather you come back when you are than feel pressured into a premature conversation.

That is often the most valuable outcome. The Discovery Sprint is specifically designed to distinguish the surface problem — the one you described — from the root cause, which may be different.

If our recommendation surprises you, the Summary will explain the reasoning in full. We are not in the business of recommending complexity for its own sake. If the right answer is simple, we will say so.

Use the booking link on our website or contact us directly at [email protected]. We will confirm the session within one business day and send you the pre-Sprint questions at the same time.

Payment is required to confirm the booking. The session does not proceed without cleared payment — this is stated upfront so there is no ambiguity.

We ask for at least 24 hours notice to reschedule. We will offer two alternative dates within the same week where possible.

If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice without an emergency reason, the session fee is retained. We will have completed the preparation work at that point and that time cannot be recovered.

Vladimir, the founder of NumberSleven. Every Discovery Sprint is run personally — it is not delegated to a junior team member or a process. The expertise that informs the Sprint Summary is the same expertise that leads the session.

Reach out directly at [email protected]. We respond to all enquiries within one business day.

If a question suggests the Sprint might not be the right starting point for your situation, we will tell you that plainly and suggest a more appropriate first step.