You should get a problem-first adoption framework and the engineering to act on it, without having to assemble both yourself.
That is what our relationship with Kendall is for. NKD Agility is an official Kendall Partner: Kendall’s problem-first discipline sets the direction, and we investigate what is holding the work back and build the accountable systems the evidence supports.
What each brings to your engagement
Kendall supplies the framework: start with a worthwhile problem, identify the knowledge the work needs, and give people responsibility for maintaining that knowledge. Leadership alignment and workforce literacy provide a shared basis for those decisions.
NKD Agility adds empirical diagnosis and engineering: we investigate the problem with the people affected, test whether missing or unreliable context is the constraint, and compare AI with other changes. When agent systems are justified, our technical support addresses permissions, verification, recovery and human responsibility.
Our engineering methods and operating practices are NKD Agility’s own contribution; partner status does not imply Kendall endorses them. The Kendall Framework and its associated marks remain The Kendall Project’s.
Where should you start?
For an organisation starting from scratch, we follow the order Kendall recommends:
- Leadership alignment for the people responsible for purpose, priorities and boundaries.
- AI Literacy & Foundations for the whole workforce who will apply that direction. No engineering background required.
- Assistant building, context sprints and curator certification as teams take the work further.
You do not have to start at step one. If a specific problem already needs investigation, go straight to Discovery. If you are seeing unreliable AI work, or cannot yet see how people use it, begin with that situation. Experienced teams can discuss engineering support without completing a course sequence.
Who delivers the work and owns the decisions?
Your organisation chooses the problems worth pursuing and owns its strategic decisions; we help establish the evidence and options. We agree the scope, delivery responsibilities, participants and price before an engagement starts.
A Kendall Framework licence gives your organisation ongoing access to the framework itself: methods, templates, prompts and self-paced material, so trained people can keep going without a consultant in the room. It is licensed by The Kendall Project under its own agreement. We can include it in an engagement we scope with you, but it is not part of an NKD Agility fee, and partner status alone does not include it or any certification or work Kendall delivers separately.
How do we judge whether it helped?
Training participation and tool usage are starting observations, not results. Judge value by the work people and customers rely on: its correctness, elapsed time, checking and correction effort, cost and consequences. Discovery shows how to start with incomplete evidence and define a next test.
Discuss the work you need to improve
Tell us who needs support, what is happening today and what remains uncertain. We can identify a suitable next step and agree who would deliver it.