Intelligent Assessments

Intelligent Assessments is Peter Wardle’s company. He digitises intellectual property to provide actionable insights.

Summary of the Podcast

Key Takeaways

• Intelligent Assessments digitises IP by converting manual frameworks (often in spreadsheets) into a SaaS platform, enabling consultants to scale their expertise globally and create recurring revenue.
• The platform provides actionable insights, not just scores. It analyzes answer patterns to generate specific, automated actions, moving beyond generic “red/amber/green” status reports.
• Its core value is enabling continuous improvement. The platform supports self-assessment, peer oversight, and independent assurance, creating a closed-loop system for tracking progress and benchmarking performance over time.
• AI is used to accelerate framework creation and power natural-language analytics. A future AI agent will automate evidence analysis for compliance checks, such as against the FCA handbook.

The Problem: Manual, Inconsistent Assessments

• Peter Wardle’s background is in recovering failing projects. His initial method involved manual interviews and spreadsheets, which were:
  • Inconsistent: Dependent on the interviewer’s mood and approach.
  • Inefficient: Time-consuming for large, distributed teams.
  • Limited: Provided a one-time snapshot, not a continuous improvement mechanism.

The Solution: A Digitised Assessment Framework

• Intelligent Assessments (IA) was created to digitise and standardise this process, moving from a service model to a product model.
• Core Principle: Provide “delivery intelligence” to project managers, empowering them with tools for self-assessment and continuous monitoring, rather than relying on external audits.
• Methodology: A “three lines of defense” model, framed as:
  1. Self-Assessment: Project managers run health checks.
  2. Oversight: Peers or senior managers review work.
  3. Independent Assurance: For complex projects, a third party provides an objective view.

Platform Capabilities & Value

• Actionable Reporting: Generates a “skill card” report that identifies strengths and weaknesses and provides specific, automated actions for improvement.
• Maturity Assessments: Measures organisational maturity on a 1–5 scale against a framework (e.g., asset management maturity for water companies).
  • Evidence Tracking: The platform stores evidence for each score, enabling internal governance and external validation.
• Consultancy Enablement: Helps consultants digitise their IP, creating a sticky, recurring revenue stream and expanding their global reach.
• Benchmarking: Aggregates anonymous data to identify common weaknesses and benchmark client performance against peers.

AI Integration

• IA uses AI in three key areas:
  1. Framework Creation: Accelerates the conversion of manual frameworks into the platform.
  2. Natural Language Analytics: Allows users to query data in plain English to generate custom dashboards.
  3. Evidence Analysis (Future): An AI agent will analyze evidence against standards (e.g., FCA handbook) to automate compliance checks.

Clips from the Podcast

He Holds up a Mirror

The Genie on the Shoulder

Types of Assessments

YOUTUBE:

Testimonial

Sponsor – inCruises

Graham Arrowsmith’s company Finely Fettled is an inCruises Independent Partner and invites you to find out more about inCruises.

inCruises Link

The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-Hosts

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled in 2014 to provide data from The UK High Net Worth Database to marketers targeting affluent and high-net-worth customers.  He’s the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, creating lead generation AI Agents & Workflows and introducing the MeclabsAI Platform. Graham is an inCruises Independent Partner, and is building up interest from people around the world in the World’s Largest Travel Membership – inCruises. You can sign up and access 21,000+ cruises, hotels and tours by clicking HERE

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He’s the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com