See where your consultation stands
Every consultation you have requested, with its status. Pending means it is being reviewed and the day is held for you. Confirmed means it is going ahead and Mark will call the number you gave.
Home / Using This Site
Using This Site
Everything here in the order you will actually need it.
Book a consultation, get an account, sign in, and use it. No jargon, no hunting. If something on this page does not match what you see, tell me and I will fix the page rather than expect you to work around it.
Step One
Book a consultation
Everything starts here. At the moment an account is created as part of booking, so this is the first thing to do rather than the second.
- Click Click here for a free consultation at the top of any page, or go straight to the booking calendar.
- Pick a day the calendar shows as open. A day with a gold dot has at least one time left. Days that are struck through are either already taken, closed, or too soon.
- Pick a time. There are three blocks and they do not work the same way:
Midday, noon to five
Twenty‑four hours notice. Confirmed straight away ‑ the time is yours the moment you book it.
Morning nine to twelve, evening five to nine
Seventy‑two hours notice, and confirmed after review. The day is held for you in the meantime so nobody else can take it.
- Fill in your details and choose a username and password. That is your account ‑ there is no separate sign‑up step.
- Describe what you are dealing with. The decision or problem, any deadline, what has already been tried, and who should be in the room. This is the part that makes the first conversation worth having.
- Press Request this consultation. A confirmation email follows.
Only one consultation is accepted per day, across the whole calendar. If a day disappears between you looking and you booking, somebody else took it ‑ pick another.
Step Two
Sign in
Your account exists from the moment you book. Nothing else is needed to activate it.
- Click Sign In in the menu at the top of any page, next to Contact. A small box drops down.
- Type the username and password you chose when you booked.
- If you have forgotten the password, click Forgot your password. A six‑digit code is emailed to you. It lasts five minutes and works once.
Nobody here can read your password back to you ‑ it is not stored in a form anyone can recover. If it is lost, the emailed code is the only route back in, so it is worth writing down somewhere safe.
Reschedule or cancel it yourself
Both buttons sit under the appointment. Reschedule this frees the time and takes you back to the calendar. Cancel this simply frees it. You do not need to ask.
Send a message
A private thread between you and Mark. Nobody else can read it, and there is no group anything. Useful for the thing you remembered after the call.
Attach photographs
Attach a picture of a screen, an error, a whiteboard. Photographs are converted automatically, so a large phone picture or a scan is fine to send exactly as it is.
Send and receive documents
PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, RTF, CSV or a zip, up to 25 MB each. If Mark sends you a form to complete, fill it in and attach it straight back on the same thread.
Read replies
Replies appear in the same thread with anything attached to them. Images show in the page; documents download under their own name.
Close your account
At the bottom of the page. It removes your account, your details, the whole message thread and any files, and releases any day you were holding. It cannot be undone.
Files you upload are stored where the web server will not serve them. They can only be reached by you or by Mark, signed in. They are never public, never indexed and never shared.
Site Map
What every page is for
Nine pages and three tools. This is all of it.
Home
What the practice is and who it is for. Start here if you have not been sent by somebody.
About
Mark Kiessling's background ‑ forty‑odd years from programmer to CTO, CIO and COO, and why that shapes the advice.
Services
The engagements on offer and what each one actually involves.
The Playbook
How the work is approached. Read this if you want to know what you are buying before you talk to anyone.
Technology
Hands‑on experience across systems, platforms and eras ‑ the detail behind the summary on About.
AI
The AI work, including the watcher systems that turn an AI account into something that behaves like an organised team member.
Insights
Writing on technology decisions, judgment and the cost of getting them wrong.
Contact
Email and telephone, if you would rather not use the calendar at all.
Consultation
The calendar. Pick a day, pick a time, describe the problem. This is also where your account is created.
Your Account
Sign in to see your consultations, message Mark, share documents and manage or close your account.
Password Reset
Reached from the sign‑in box. Sends a six‑digit code that expires in five minutes.
Terms of Service
What is and is not promised. Worth reading before the first conversation rather than after.
Worth Knowing
A few honest notes
An account requires a consultation. There is no way to register on its own at the moment. That is deliberate rather than an oversight ‑ the account exists to support a conversation, not to build a mailing list.
The free consultation is an evaluation. Thirty minutes to work out whether the problem fits the experience, and whether talking further is worth anyone's time. It is not the work itself, and nothing is promised as an outcome. The Terms of Service set that out plainly.
Times are Central. Every time shown anywhere on this site is Central time, regardless of where you are.
If something breaks. Say so on the message thread, or by email from the Contact page. A page that behaves badly is a fault to be fixed, not something for you to work around.
From the Field