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A Strategy Studio · Brooklyn · Est. 2017

One session.
Ninety minutes.
One reframing you could not see for months.

The Escher Session is a paid, single-arc working diagnostic with a senior strategist. You bring the strategic question that has quietly stalled your team. We redraw the problem so the obvious next move becomes visible. Most teams leave with a strategy they ship within thirty days.

Book an Escher Session Read the method

The Arc

Ninety minutes, four chapters.

A working session is timed, not open-ended. The agenda below is the exact arc every Session follows. We send it to you in advance so your team can prepare without surprises.

  1. 01

    0 — 10 min · Frame

    Set the question on the table, in one sentence.

    You arrive with the strategic question already drafted. We spend ten minutes pressure-testing the wording. By the end, one sentence captures the problem precisely — and we both know we are solving the right thing.

  2. 02

    10 — 40 min · Map

    Map the frame that has been holding you in place.

    We diagram the assumptions, stakeholders, and second-order consequences that surround your question. The map is drawn live, on a shared surface, so you can argue with it in real time. The frame — the hidden shape of the problem — surfaces.

  3. 03

    40 — 75 min · Reframe

    Walk the impossible object around the problem.

    We rotate the frame through three structurally impossible perspectives — the Escher moves. One of them will click. It has clicked in 1,247 of 1,247 sessions to date, though we will be the first to admit a single counter-example is still mathematically possible.

  4. 04

    75 — 90 min · Commit

    Name the next move, the owner, and the ship date.

    The last fifteen minutes are operational, not philosophical. We write down the reframed strategy in plain language, name the executive sponsor, and pick a thirty-day ship date. You leave the room with a one-page artifact, not a deck.

Who & What

You sit with a named senior strategist. You leave with named deliverables.

Sessions are not delegated. The strategist who sold you the engagement is the strategist who runs it. The deliverables are concrete — every one of them is something you can hand to your board on Monday morning.

Run by

Senior strategists, named in advance.

  • Portrait of Lila Okafor, Managing Partner

    Lila Okafor

    Managing Partner · Ex-IDEO, ex-Pentagram

  • Portrait of Daniel Reyes, Partner

    Daniel Reyes

    Partner · Former founder, two-time acquisition

  • Portrait of Sam Whitfield, Partner

    Sam Whitfield

    Partner · Author, The Escher Reframe (Wiley, 2023)

  • Portrait of Henrik Vasari, Principal

    Henrik Vasari

    Principal · Ex-McKinsey Strategy, Stanford GSB lecturer

Four of fourteen senior strategists. You will be introduced to two before booking; you choose the one you want in the room.

You leave with

Four artifacts. No decks. No slide handouts.

  1. i.

    One-Page Reframed Strategy

    A single page stating the old frame, the Escher move, and the new strategy in plain language. The artifact you forward to your board.

  2. ii.

    90-Day Execution Memo

    The named owner, the three sequenced milestones, the dependencies, and the kill criteria if the strategy stalls.

  3. iii.

    Frame Diagram (PDF + Figma)

    The visual map of the problem as it stood before the session, annotated with the move that unlocked it.

  4. iv.

    Recording & Transcript

    The full ninety-minute session, lightly edited, with speaker tags. Yours to share with your executive team on your own terms.

Ninety-two percent of clients ship the reframed strategy within thirty days of the Session, across 1,247 sessions in 38 countries.

The Guarantee

If no usable reframing is delivered, the Session is free.

This is a contractual term, included in the engagement letter, not a marketing aside. We have honored it exactly once across 1,247 sessions. The clause that follows is the actual wording, lightly abridged for the page.

"Usable reframing" means, at minimum, all three of the following have been produced and delivered in writing to the Client within seventy-two (72) hours of the Session: (i) a one-page statement of the prior frame and the new frame, in language the Client's executive team can repeat without assistance; (ii) a single named next move with a named owner and a named ship date within ninety (90) days; and (iii) at least one counter-example considered and either resolved or explicitly preserved as an open risk. If any of (i), (ii), or (iii) is not delivered, the Studio refunds the full fee within ten (10) business days. The Client is the sole judge of whether (i) is, in fact, repeatable by their executive team.

— Engagement Letter, Clause 4.2, Mental Escher, Inc. Reviewed by outside counsel (Fenwick & West LLP) annually since 2019.

Practical Questions

The questions a senior buyer asks before signing off.

If the answer below is not specific enough, write to us directly. We respond inside one business day, in writing, by a partner.

Duration and cadence — is one session enough?
A single Escher Session is ninety minutes. Most engagements are exactly one session. We will recommend a second only when the first produced two distinct, shippable reframings and you want both on a single ship calendar. Optional follow-up sessions are booked at the same fee.
Pricing model — how is the fee structured?
Pricing is on request because the senior strategist assigned changes the rate. As of 2024, single Sessions range from $18,000 to $36,000 depending on the strategist, the industry context, and whether you are a returning client. A written quote is provided within two business days of a brief conversation; the fee is fixed in the engagement letter before any calendar is held.
Remote or in-person — where does the Session happen?
Both, with no difference in fee. In-person Sessions take place at our Brooklyn studio, at your offices, or at a third venue of your choosing. Remote Sessions run on a shared digital surface with full audio and video recorded for the deliverables above. Roughly seventy percent of Sessions in 2024 were remote.
Who attends from our side — and what about NDA?
Two to four people from your side is the working ideal: the executive sponsor, the operator closest to the question, and one informed skeptic. A mutual NDA is signed before any brief is exchanged; we will counter-sign your existing NDA within one business day in most cases. We do not require any exclusivity, and we will never reuse the artifact of your session with another client.

A more thorough diligence pack — fee structure, sample engagement letter, methodology citations, and references from comparable companies — is available on request at [email protected].

The only CTA on this page

Bring the question.
We will bring ninety minutes.

One brief conversation with a partner, a written quote inside two business days, and a calendar held when the engagement letter is signed. No decks in the interim.

Book an Escher Session

Or write to [email protected] · +1 (212) 555-0193 · Brooklyn, NY