How we work
Nobody publishes how they actually run an engagement, so here is ours, in enough detail to hold us to it.
- Sprint
- 2 weeks
- Demo
- Every sprint
- Status
- Weekly
- Lead
- Named
Our operating rhythm
An approach before a price
Within one business day of your message we respond with a proposed approach, a first milestone and the key risks. The price that follows is fixed and agreed in advance, never a guess with a decimal point on it.
Fixed price, agreed before work starts.
Two-week sprints
The work is planned, built and closed in two-week increments. Scope for the sprint is agreed at the start of it, and what is in it does not change halfway through.
Sprint goal agreed in writing.
A demo every sprint
You see the system running at the end of every sprint, on real data, driven by us. Not a slide about progress, the software itself.
Recorded, so people who missed it can watch it.
A written weekly status
Four headings, every week: what progressed, what is next, what the risks are, and what is blocked. Short enough to read, specific enough to act on.
Progress · Next · Risks · Blockers.
One named engagement lead
One person who owns the relationship, knows the whole system, and answers for it. Not a rotating account manager between you and the engineers.
Named at kickoff, and for the length of the engagement.
Change control in writing
New scope gets a written impact on cost and date before it enters a sprint. Scope moves deliberately, or it does not move.
Nothing enters the build on a verbal yes.
Five stages, run in order.
The rhythm above is how each week feels. This is the shape of the whole engagement: the decisions that are expensive to reverse get made early, and deliberately.
- 01
Understand
Business, users, workflows, constraints.
We map how the organisation actually runs before proposing anything, including the parts that live in spreadsheets, habits and people's heads.
- Workflow map
- Constraints
- Success criteria
- 02
Architect
System architecture and technical direction.
Data model, system boundaries, integration points and the failure cases. The decisions that are expensive to reverse get made here, deliberately.
- Data model
- System design
- Integration plan
- 03
Design
Product experience and workflows.
Interfaces designed against real data volumes and real roles, so the product holds up when it leaves the demo.
- Interface design
- Workflow design
- Design system
- 04
Build
Engineering, testing, integration.
Built in working increments with a demo every two weeks. You see the system running throughout, not at the end.
- Working increments
- Demo every sprint
- Test coverage
- 05
Launch
Deployment, monitoring, iteration.
Deployment, monitoring and the first weeks in production, where a system proves whether it was engineered or assembled.
- Deployment
- Monitoring
- Iteration
Four ways to start with us.
Structures rather than rates, so you can work out which one you are before the call rather than during it.
Pilot
Three to four weeks, fixed price
One process, with fixed scope and a fixed price, live in production within three to four weeks, and your team reviewing every output.
Start here when you know which process is costing you the most.
Discovery
Two to three weeks, fixed price
We map the workflow, the data model and the constraints, then come back with an architecture, a first milestone and where we think the risk sits. It stands on its own: the output is yours whether or not we build it.
Start here when the problem is clear but the shape of the answer is not.
Fixed-price build
Scoped and quoted before engineering starts
You know what is being built and what it costs up front. Two-week sprints, a working demo at the end of each, a written weekly status, and change control in writing so scope moves deliberately rather than quietly.
The default for a defined system with a date attached to it.
Retainer
A standing monthly capacity
For systems already in production: iteration, regulatory change, new integrations, monitoring and the on-call reality of running software. A named engagement lead, and a backlog you set the order of.
After launch, or for a system you already own and need kept moving.
Start with a pilot or a discovery.
Both are fixed price. A pilot puts one process into production; a discovery maps a larger system first. Either way, the output is yours.
We respond within one business day. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you.