Alternative · Strategy Consulting

An alternative to a strategy consultant,
the week you need one

A great independent strategy consultant brings decades of pattern recognition in one voice. The alternative to a strategy consultant here is several opposed voices in one room, on different AI models. A different mechanic, used alongside.

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In short

For the structured analysis layer, often yes. For pattern recognition from a 30-year career, no. Use SynthBoard before, between or instead of consultant sessions, depending on how much your question leans on that pattern recognition.

Last reviewed October 1, 2026

An example

One ask, start to finish.
What comes back is a memo.

How a board takes a call like this: her read, who sits, what they ask first, then the call — with how sure they are, who disagreed and the first step.

Strategy Consulting

Example · Board of 3

Should we focus our positioning around the buyer or the user?

Chief of staff

This one needs a board: The Strategist, The CFO and The Investor. The Strategist maps competitive dynamics and strategic options across multi-year horizons. Each researches alone first, then they react to one another — and on a decision, two of them take opposed sides.

The StrategistCompetitive Expert
The CFOFinancial Controller
The InvestorVC Partner

Asked first

Has a competitor already made this move?

Yes, one hasNot that I knowWe’d be first

The board’s call

Position around the buyer (the CFO) but design the product for the user (the analyst).

Buyer-positioning + user-design is the canonical resolution for this trade-off. Marketing site and pricing page should speak buyer language.

Confidence76 · High

The Investor disagreed

“Do not let buyer language leak into the product UX”

First step Lead with the buyer in marketing.this week

Board of 3 · up to 135 credits on the card · an example, not a recorded run

Other asks people bring here

Several asks in one message become several rooms, each with its expert and its own price on the card. Keep or drop any, then convene them together.

How would a top strategy consultant frame the trade-off between vertical depth and horizontal breadth? — The CFO, up to 85 credits
What is the steel-man case against the strategic shift my consultant is recommending? — The Investor, up to 85 credits
Which of these three market-entry sequences would a thoughtful strategist pick? — The Customer, up to 85 credits

What you get

What she handles.
On this kind of call.

Strategy frameworks, argued

Porter, 7S, scenario planning, market sizing, JTBD. Each expert researches alone, then reacts once to the others, and the memo says when one changes position.

Several lenses, not one

A consultant brings one voice — their experience. A board brings The Strategist, The CFO, The Investor, The Customer and The Skeptic.

Why SynthBoard

Why SynthBoard for this.
Not one voice. A board.

There the moment you have a question

A senior strategy consultant has a waitlist. Your Chief of Staff is there now; tell her the question and she shows the card.

A card, not an hourly rate

A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Independent strategy consultants charge $250–$1,500+ an hour.

Opposed positions, assigned

A consultant gives you one experience. On a decision, a board assigns at least two experts opposed positions, so the counter-case is always argued.

One expert when one is enough

Not every question needs a board. A consult is one named expert, about a minute, up to 85 credits on its card.

Who sits

The experts for this call.
Each one holds a position.

Your Chief of Staff proposes who sits for the call, and every board is built with someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer. Name an expert and they take a seat; tell her who you want on your board and they sit by default. How many seats a board has depends on your plan.

Competitive Expert

The Strategist

Don’t ask whether it’s good. Ask what your competitor does the day after you ship it.

The Strategist Competitive Expert

Best on: Positioning, entering a market, pricing against a rival.
Won’t let you: Plan a move as if nobody will answer it.

Try asking The Strategist

Start with

The StrategistOpen on every plan, Free included

Pick an expert

Hover, tap or tab throughSwipe, then tap one

GPT
Claude
Gemini
Grok

Seats are spread across model families: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and more.

In their words

One consultant gives you one good answer. A board gives you the answers worth disagreeing about. Pick the one that survives.

The Strategist Competitive ExpertThe Strategist on the difference in mechanic

Questions

Fair questions.
Straight answers.

What people ask before they bring this call to a board.

Does SynthBoard replace a strategy consultant?

When should I use SynthBoard instead of a consultant?

When you need an answer this week, when the budget does not warrant a billable engagement, or when the question is well-shaped and what you need is an argument between opposed views, not one expert voice.

When is a strategy consultant still the right call?

When you need decades of industry-specific pattern recognition, introductions from someone’s network, primary research or interviews, or a human who stakes their reputation on the recommendation. SynthBoard is a thinking room; a consultant is a relationship.

How does the price compare?

SynthBoard prices each call on its card; a consultant bills the hour. Free to start — 150 credits every month + 250 to start. Talking to your Chief of Staff costs nothing. A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Paid plans are $20, $50 or $99 a month (1 credit = $0.01 USD). Independent strategy consultants typically charge $250–$1,500 an hour, with projects from $10k–$200k.

What does SynthBoard NOT do that a consultant does?

No war stories from a 30-year career, no introductions, no primary research, no reputational accountability on the recommendation. Its experts are AI and can be wrong. SynthBoard is a structured room of opposed experts.

Can I use SynthBoard to evaluate my consultant’s recommendation?

Yes, and it is a high-value use. Bring the recommendation to a board and ask for the strongest case against it. It sometimes surfaces a fatal flaw before you commit — and often sharpens how you implement the rest.

SynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.