Lesson 1 · 14 min
A nine-person clinic is not a miniature big company. The owner decides alone, there's no IT, WhatsApp is the front door to everything, and a lot of the rules live in her head. That's why the diagnosis comes before any tool, and it's where the DICA method starts.
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Goal: describe the small business in 5 lines and place the diagnosis (D) within the DICA method before proposing any AI.
Four steps, in this order. This course is the D. Click each letter.
Building got easy; trusting what was built did not. The D is where trust begins.
Four traits that change how you diagnose.
There is no board and no purchasing department. The person who answers the interview is the one who approves, pays, and uses it.
That speeds up the decision, but everything depends on one person's schedule and mood.
The owner sees patients in the morning and handles administration in the afternoon. The conversation with you fits between the two.
The system password, the WhatsApp account, and the spreadsheet stay with whoever set them up, sometimes a nephew.
Before you think about integrating, find out who has access to what.
Scheduling, questions, complaints, and payments all arrive on the same phone.
That's why the WhatsApp rules (lesson 7) belong in the diagnosis, not only in the build.
The owner knows how to do it but not how to describe it. Prices, exceptions, and "the way we do things here" were never written down.
Lessons 4 and 5 teach you how to draw this out without asking the owner to come up with rules alone.
Fill it in before the interview with what you already know; the rest becomes questions. Replace what is between < > with your own.
# 5-line sheet — <business name> (<city>, <date>) 1. Who decides: <name and role; who else needs to agree> 2. Main channel: <how the customer arrives and talks: WhatsApp, phone, counter> 3. Who answers today: <person, hours, what happens outside hours> 4. What can't stop: <the activity that, if it stops for a day, costs money> 5. Where the information lives: <system, spreadsheet, notebook, someone's head> Don't know yet: <what is missing and which interview question will answer it>
# 5-line sheet — Clínica Vila Serena (fictional) 1. Who decides: the owner, alone; the partner weighs in on spending 2. Main channel: the front desk WhatsApp (one phone) 3. Who answers today: the receptionist, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; at night, the owner on her own phone 4. What can't stop: the physical therapists' schedule 5. Where the information lives: schedule in the clinic's system; prices and insurance plans in the team's heads Don't know yet: how many messages arrive per day (interview question 5)
Four and a half minutes: the conversation, the one-page diagnosis, and a clinic example.
Clínica Vila Serena is fictional and stays with you throughout the course.
Copy the template and fill it in for Clínica Vila Serena (physical therapy and aesthetics, 9 people, an owner who sees patients and handles administration, front desk on WhatsApp). If you serve a real business, do theirs too, with permission.
Done when: the 5 lines have concrete answers and at least one is marked "don't know yet", with the question that will answer it.
Write one sentence on what your diagnosis delivers and one sentence on what it does not deliver (price, building, promise of results).
Done when: both sentences exist, and the second one names at least one thing that is left for after the diagnosis.
Question 1 of 4
In a small business, the person you interview in the diagnosis is usually:
Question 2 of 4
What comes out of step D of the DICA method?skill
Question 3 of 4
In the 5-line sheet, the "I don't know yet" line is for:
Question 4 of 4
Why do the WhatsApp rules come into the diagnosis right away?
Pick an answer. The explanation shows up after you try.