Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the frameworks, methods, and terms used across Kingsbury Consulting’s work. Each is defined once, consistently, so the same meaning holds wherever a term appears.
Frameworks and methods
- ARC (Align, Run, Change)
- Kingsbury Consulting’s non-linear digital-maturity diagnostic. It establishes where an organisation’s digital focus belongs now, across three dimensions, Align, Run, and Change, and feeds the CORE Framework.
- CORE (Consolidate, Optimise, Reinforce, Expand)
- Kingsbury Consulting’s structured method for sequencing digital transformation across four phases, so that an organisation builds a reliable foundation and protects it before investing in growth.
- Three Horizons Map
- The sequencing logic across a roadmap, separating work into Now, Next, and Later so that urgent remediation, planned improvement, and longer-term opportunity do not compete as if they were the same kind of work.
- Impact-versus-cost prioritisation matrix
- The practical bridge between diagnosis and action, scoring initiatives by impact against cost to sequence them.
Governance subsets
- The 5Rs (Relevance, Risk, Rigour, Responsibility, Review)
- A structured test for whether an AI use case should progress, applied before adoption: whether it solves a real problem, what could go wrong, how outputs will be tested, who is accountable, and how value and risk will be reassessed over time.
- The 5A (Acknowledge, Audit, Adjust, Adopt, Advocate)
- A structured approach to digital accessibility: accepting it as a strategic responsibility, auditing the journeys that matter, adjusting the highest-impact barriers first, adopting accessibility into normal delivery, and advocating by making progress and feedback routes visible.
Service phases
- Blueprint
- The discovery and roadmap engagement, deliverable as a standalone roadmap that establishes current-state truth and sequences the work.
- Navigator
- The definition-and-design phase between Blueprint and Architect, turning the roadmap into defined services and products through user-journey mapping, service mapping, and product definition.
- Architect
- The technology integration and implementation phase, delivering the defined services on sound foundations.
Compliance dimensions
- D1: Legal risk to chief executives and trustees
- Exposure under data-protection law, including GDPR and the personal liability that can sit with senior leaders and boards.
- D2: Trust erosion with funders and service users
- The reputational and relationship risk created by ungoverned AI adoption and gaps in board oversight.
- D3: AI in grant applications
- The competitive disadvantage, funder scrutiny, and data-protection risk around the use of AI in bids and grant processes.
Principles
- Discovery before procurement
- Understanding how an organisation actually works before recommending any system or purchase, so that investment responds to an evidenced picture rather than to vendor pressure.
The frameworks behind these terms start from an honest picture of where an organisation stands. The diagnostic is a free way to see where you sit, with no obligation to go further.
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