FAQ
Questions, answered plainly
Straight answers about The ADX Group, ClarionEX, the free course, the AI Readiness Assessment and this knowledge base: what things cost, how access works, and where the answers come from.
About ADX
What is The ADX Group?
The ADX Group is the consulting practice of Dave O'Riordan. It helps organisations improve how work flows and how people think: continuous improvement and Lean Six Sigma, critical thinking for teams, and AI readiness. The work is practitioner-led, not theoretical, and it rests on the conviction at the heart of Dave's book: continuous improvement is a philosophy, not a program, and it starts with respecting the people who do the work.
Who is Dave O'Riordan, and what is his background in continuous improvement?
Dave grew up in Cork City, Ireland, and came to the United States in 2014 with his wife Mindi, their two young boys, four suitcases and about $1,500. He fell in love with Lean and Six Sigma at a Fortune 100 insurance company, and has spent more than twelve years in operations and transformation across healthcare, insurance and high-volume contact centres. His roles have included Director of Process Improvement and Site Director, Division Manager of Continuous Improvement, and Head of School at a Christian academy, where enrolment doubled. He is a Six Sigma practitioner at black-belt level, co-founded the Arizona Christian Chamber of Commerce, and currently serves as a senior director of service experience at a national nonprofit.
What industries has ADX worked in?
Healthcare, insurance and high-volume contact centres, including Fortune 100 environments, as well as education, churches, ministries and nonprofits. The methods travel because they are about how work flows and how people think, not about one industry's habits.
How does a consulting engagement start?
Start with the contact form on this site. Tell us a little about your organisation and the problem you are trying to solve. Dave reads every enquiry personally and replies to arrange a short discovery call: no pressure, no pitch deck.
Does the AI Readiness Assessment sell us software afterwards?
No. The ADX Group is vendor-neutral. The assessment maps your readiness and sequences your decisions; it never sells software off the back of its own findings.
Where can I get Dave's book, Continuous Improvement in the Workplace?
Continuous Improvement in the Workplace: Developing a Culture of Critical Thinking is Dave's book on building cultures that think clearly and improve deliberately. It is being prepared for publication, so there is no shop link to give you yet, and we would rather say that plainly than take orders we cannot fulfil. Use the notify form on the Book page and you will hear as soon as it is available.
ClarionEX: the tools
What is ClarionEX?
ClarionEX is The ADX Group's decision-intelligence workspace: a set of guided problem-solving tools that run in your browser. It walks you through framing a problem, finding its root cause and deciding the next move, teaching as it goes. Every tool is free in Lite for the session. Full, at $99 for one year, adds saving, exports, email, share links and Coach Review.
Open the ClarionEX workspace (free in Lite)
Which tools are in ClarionEX?
The core set: the 5 Whys, Fishbone, Root Cause, Solve (with Just Do It, Rapid Improvement Event and DMAIC pathways), the Process Mapper, SIPOC, RACI Lite, Pre-Mortem, Whiteboard and the Data Manager. Around them sit Prioritize, Triage, SWOT, the PDCA tracker, Skills Matrix, Symptom Sort, a Gemba Walk planner, a Stop-Start-Continue retro board, Problems and Decision Notes. One honest note: the Whiteboard previews a photo of your board on your device today; turning that photo into an editable Visio file automatically is still in development. For an editable map today, the Process Mapper exports real PowerPoint and Visio files.
See the tools in the workspace
What is the difference between the lite tools and the full version?
Lite gives you the whole toolbox, free: open the workspace and use every tool for as long as the tab stays open, with no code and no card. What Lite never does is keep your work: close the tab and it is gone. Full adds the keeping and the carrying: saving on your device, a master backup and optional cloud backup in the Data Manager, branded exports, share links, email delivery of finished work, and Coach Review. Upgrade in the middle of a session and the work in front of you carries over.
How much does ClarionEX cost?
$99, once, for one year of Full access. It is a one-time payment by card through Stripe, not a subscription, so nothing renews on its own. Lite stays free either way, and there is no trial clock: use Lite as long as you like before deciding.
See ClarionEX and get Full access
How do I get my access code after I pay?
It is emailed to you automatically. When you check out, a unique access code (it looks like CLX-XXXXXXXX) is sent to the email address you paid with, usually within a minute or two. If it has not arrived, check your spam folder. Enter the code in the workspace and Full unlocks on the spot. Keep the code safe: it works in any browser for your year, and it is also your recovery code.
Enter your code in the workspace
How long does my access last, and what happens when it expires?
One year from the day you buy. When the year ends, your code stops unlocking Full and the workspace returns to Lite: the tools still open free, and work saved in your own browser stays in your browser. Buy again whenever you are ready and a new code is emailed for the next year.
What can I export from the full version?
Finished work leaves as files you can keep and hand over: branded PDF reports, PowerPoint (.pptx) and Visio (.vsdx) files from the Process Mapper, SVG and PNG images, and clean print layouts. Which formats you get depends on the tool. The Data Manager also exports a master backup of your whole workspace, so nothing you make is trapped inside ClarionEX.
Open the Process Mapper in Lite
Can I email or share my finished work with my team?
Yes, in Full. You can email a finished piece of work straight from the workspace, or create a view-only share link for it. Share links last 30 days, and you can revoke one at any time. In Lite, sending and sharing are switched off; they are part of what Full adds.
What is Coach Review?
Coach Review is an AI reviewer built into ClarionEX Full. Click it on a piece of work you have finished and it reads that work against the criteria a continuous improvement coach would use, then gives plain feedback: what is strong, what is missing, and what to fix next. It is an AI and it is labelled as one. It only ever sees the piece of work you hand it; it is not a chatbot and it does not watch anything else you do.
Where is my work stored, and who can see it?
On your own device. ClarionEX is local-first: in Lite nothing is saved once you close the tab, and in Full your work saves in your browser, on your machine. ADX cannot see it and does not read it. The only copies that ever leave your device are the ones you choose to make: an export, an email, a share link, or the optional cloud backup, which is tied to your access code so only your code can restore it.
Can I use the tools by voice or dictation?
Yes. The tools carry microphone buttons, so you can talk instead of type. The Process Mapper is built around it: answer its questions out loud, or dictate the answers, and the map builds as you go. Dictation runs on your browser's speech recognition and works best in Chrome. Where a browser does not support it, the buttons quietly stay out of the way and typing works as normal.
Open the Process Mapper in Lite
I lost my access code. What do I do?
Lost your code? Enter the email you bought with and we'll send a replacement. Your year runs from your original purchase date, so a replacement never extends it.
The course
What is the CI Foundations course?
CI Foundations (in full: Continuous Improvement Foundations, Building a Culture of Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers) is The ADX Group's self-paced course in the foundations of continuous improvement, drawn from Dave's book. It teaches the kit working leaders actually use: seeing waste, mapping work, root-cause thinking, choosing a solution pathway, measuring honestly, and leading the change so it sticks.
Is the course free? What does it cover?
Yes: free, self-paced, and open now on this site. Nine modules: Foundations; The CI Landscape (Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma); Communication; Seeing the Work; Finding the Root Cause; Solution Pathways; Making It Stick; Leading the Change; and a capstone where you build your own 30/60/90 day improvement plan. It ends with a final exam self-check, scored in your browser, with a printable completion summary.
How is the course different from the knowledge base and the book?
They are three depths of the same material. The knowledge base answers one question at a time, in a few minutes, when you need it. The course teaches the method in sequence, with practice built in, and leaves you with your own improvement plan. The book goes deepest: the full case studies, the complete exercises, and the way the whole system fits together. Most people start with an answer, take the course when they want the method, and keep the book on the desk.
AI readiness
What is the AI Readiness Assessment?
A structured assessment of how ready your organisation is to adopt AI, and how ready the thinking underneath that adoption is. It comes in two tiers. Tier 1, the Readiness Snapshot, reviews how work actually flows today, where AI tools are already in use (officially or not), and where the critical-thinking gaps sit. Tier 2, the Readiness Deep Dive, goes to process level and adds workforce capability work and a sequenced adoption roadmap. Both tiers are framework-led and vendor-neutral.
What do I receive from the assessment?
A written assessment and a prioritised readiness map: what to fix before any rollout, what can be piloted now, and what to leave alone. Tier 2 adds process-level analysis of your candidate workflows and a sequenced adoption roadmap your own leaders can run, ordered by risk and value rather than by vendor enthusiasm. The point is decisions, owners and a sequence, not a report that shelves itself.
The knowledge base itself
Where do these answers come from?
From Dave's own material: his book, Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, the CI Foundations course, and the guidance built into the ClarionEX tools. Every answer is written fresh for this site from that material. Nothing is copied or adapted from another website's answers, and any fact an answer states about ADX, the course or ClarionEX is checked against the live site before it is published.
About the book behind the answers
Can I ask a question that isn't answered yet?
Yes, and please do. Send it through the contact form and it joins the writing backlog. The answered list grows from what people actually ask, and new answers are written from the same sources as the rest, the book first of all. If your question is really about your own organisation's situation, that is what the discovery call is for.
Do the answers come from Dave's book?
The method answers, mostly yes. The book is the foundation: its chapters on seeing problems, root cause, solution pathways, measurement, leadership and time are the ground the knowledge base stands on, condensed into answers you can read in minutes. Questions about the tools, the course, prices and practicalities are answered from the live product itself, checked against this site.
Practicalities
How do I contact ADX?
Through the contact form on this site. The site publishes no email addresses. Tell us a little about your organisation and what you are trying to solve, and Dave reads every enquiry personally and replies to arrange a short discovery call.
What is your refund position?
If ClarionEX isn't for you, email us within 30 days of purchase for a full refund. No forms, no hard feelings. Your access code is switched off when the refund lands.
Want the how-to answers?
This page covers ADX itself: prices, access and the offer. The knowledge base covers the practice: 150 questions on continuous improvement, root cause, measurement, leadership and AI readiness, each answered in full from Dave's book and the ADX tools.
Still stuck?
If your question is not answered here, send it through the contact form. It joins the writing backlog, and if it is about your own organisation, Dave replies personally to arrange a short discovery call.