Counseling Practice · Platform Decision · CEO Engagement

Brought In to Choose a Platform.
The Sprint Said: Wait.

How we saved Valor Counseling from a high-stakes, expensive software decision — by doing the due diligence first and telling the CEO the honest answer.

“

If you didn't see his face, you would have thought you were working with somebody who was 45.

Jennifer Havlovic · CEO, Valor Counseling & Support
Client
Jennifer Havlovic
Company
Valor Counseling & Support
Industry
Counseling / Mental Health
Engagement
Platform Decision Sprint
Executive Summary

Valor Counseling was about to commit to a new case-management platform — an expensive, hard-to-reverse decision the entire practice would run on. Jennifer had already tried working with someone who was brilliant but couldn't execute, and the anxiety of choosing wrong was, in her words, "off the charts." Xentura ran a decision sprint and interviewed every member of her team first-hand, then presented Jennifer two clear options — two different futures: a lower-cost interim platform to bridge the next couple of years while she moves toward building her own, or the more capable, more customizable build we leaned toward. Instead of pushing either, we coached her on how to decide — meet with each vendor over the following weeks and judge whether they were genuinely aligned with her direction. She did exactly that, decided neither was the right fit, and kept the final call herself — avoiding a costly wrong purchase and walking away with total clarity on what to build when the time is right, calling the engagement worth every penny she spent.

The Challenge

As CEO of a growing counseling practice, Jennifer was short on time and facing a decision with real consequences: which case-management platform to run the entire operation on. The wrong choice wouldn't just cost money — it would mean months of disruption, a frustrated team, and the pain of ripping it all out later. She'd already had someone in place trying to help evaluate options — a brilliant person who was missing the essential ability to execute, listen, and act — so she'd abandoned that path and was carrying the weight of the decision largely alone.

A high-stakes platform decision the whole practice would depend on — with no clear, trusted process to make it
"The anxiety of picking a new platform was off the charts" — and a wrong call would have been catastrophic
A previous helper who was smart but couldn't execute, listen, and act on the plan
A CEO short on time, easily pulled across a dozen projects, with no margin to research it properly
Our Approach

We treated this as a decision to get right, not a product to sell. Xentura did the heavy lifting Jennifer didn't have time for — interviewed the people who'd actually use the system and sourced the real options — then, in a decision-maker meeting, laid out two clear futures and gave her a way to choose between them. Jennifer stayed firmly in the driver's seat the entire way.

→ Interviewed every member of the team first-hand — so the decision reflected what the staff actually needed, not just the view from the top
→ Sourced and compared the real options — with a plain-language "here's why, here's what to consider" breakdown for each
→ Presented two clear options — two different futures: a lower-cost interim platform to bridge the next couple of years until she builds her own, or a more capable, more customizable build we leaned toward
→ Coached her on how to vet them — meet each vendor over the following weeks, pressure-test what they can actually deliver, and judge whether they're in the same one-way tunnel as her vision
→ Kept Jennifer in the lead — informing the call, never steamrolling or replacing her judgment
What she paid for wasn't a platform — it was a clear way to decide. Two mapped-out futures, a process to vet them, and the confidence to walk away from both when neither lined up with where she's headed. The result was clarity, not a purchase.
The Outcome

The sprint produced exactly what a high-stakes decision needs: clarity, not a sales pitch. Jennifer met with the vendors, decided neither was the right fit — and still came out, in her words, "so much farther ahead."

Avoided
A Costly Wrong Buy
The engagement cost a fraction of what the wrong platform would have — in licenses, disruption, and the rip-out later. Jennifer paid for an answer, and the answer paid for itself.
100%
Of the Team Interviewed
Every staff member was interviewed first-hand, so the decision reflected what Valor actually needed top to bottom — and the team felt heard.
1
Clear Path Forward
Jennifer left knowing exactly what she needs, what her team needs, and who she'll call when it's time to build it.

The clarity didn't just settle the platform question — it changed the destination. With a sharp understanding of her real requirements, Jennifer is now weighing building her own platform rather than settling for a vendor that almost fits, and plans to bring Xentura back in to think it through: "help me understand what I'm missing, what I haven't considered, and how to bring it to life."

Before / After
Anxiety "off the charts" over a high-stakes platform decision, carried largely alone → Calm, confident clarity — the decision de-risked and made on real information
A previous helper who was smart but couldn't execute, listen, or act → A partner who did the due diligence, interviewed the whole team, and delivered fast
About to commit money with no reliable way to tell whether any vendor truly fit → Two futures mapped and vetted — walked away from both, $0 on the wrong tool, with a clear plan to build her own
Why It Worked

For a lot of owners, the barrier isn't the decision — it's the people who usually show up to help with it. Jennifer named exactly what was different about working with Xentura.

"A lot of times you get people from the tech world who talk all this big jargon over top of you. Klajdi has a way of not only listening and giving you the respect of not interrupting, but truly hearing your problems — and then putting the solution in a way you can understand, where it meets you where you're at."

— Jennifer Havlovic, CEO · Valor Counseling & Support

"It totally was worth every single penny I spent. I would do it again in a heartbeat."

— Jennifer Havlovic, CEO · Valor Counseling & Support

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What This Means

Most consultants are incentivized to sell you something. Jennifer hired us, paid us — and the most valuable thing we did was tell her not to buy, because the math and the team interviews said so. That's the whole point: we operate like your growth is our equity, which sometimes means protecting your money instead of helping you spend it. She called it worth every penny anyway.

If you're staring down a decision where getting it wrong is expensive — a platform, a tool, a system you'll build the business on — the question isn't "which one." It's "who's going to do the diligence and tell me the truth." That's what this was.

About Xentura

Xentura is the AI growth operator for service businesses. We don't work for you — we operate with you, like your growth is equity we own. We find where your operation is leaking, fix it by hand and then layer AI on top, train your team to run it, and stay to scale it with you. You don't just get tools — you get a system that runs without you, and a partner who wants you to win more than you do.

Klajdi Shehu
Klajdi Shehu
Founder, Xentura
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