How We Work
One methodology.
Adapted to your challenge.
Every engagement follows the same structure — starting with a Discovery Phase before we propose anything. Here's exactly what working with us looks like.
01
Phased, not monolithic
Every engagement is structured in sequential phases — typically four, plus an optional ongoing partnership. Each phase has a defined scope, clear deliverables, and ends with a milestone review where you decide what comes next. You can pause, adjust scope, or conclude at any milestone with no penalty. You never commit to the full journey upfront.
Phase 1
Understand
We listen, investigate, and diagnose. Before we recommend anything, we need to see your situation clearly — not how things are supposed to work, but how they actually work. This is our Discovery Phase: a fixed-fee, one-week engagement at $1,500 that every client starts with. You get a clear picture of where your operations are breaking down and a specific recommendation for what to do about it. No commitment to what comes next until you've seen the diagnosis.
Milestone ReviewPhase 2
Design
We architect the solution — the system, the model, the product. You see it, test it, and approve it before we ask anyone to change how they work or before we write production code.
Milestone ReviewPhase 3
Prove
We implement with real teams and real users. Pilot rollouts, production builds, hands-on coaching — we test the solution in the field and refine it based on what we learn.
Milestone ReviewPhase 4
Scale & Hand Over
We expand what works across the organization and transfer ownership to your team. You walk away self-sufficient — with the documentation, training, and confidence to run it without us.
Engagement CloseCustom Software & Automations
Discover → Design → Build → Hand Over
The Discovery Phase maps your workflows and surfaces where automation or custom software will have the most impact. Phase 2 designs and prototypes the solution. Phase 3 builds and tests it with your team. Phase 4 launches, transfers ownership, and documents everything. 8–12 weeks total.
AI Governance
Discover → Assess → Design → Implement
The Discovery Phase surfaces every AI-assisted tool your teams have already built and maps where the risk lives. Phase 2 assesses and classifies that risk. Phase 3 designs your governance model and builder playbook. Phase 4 implements guardrails and trains your team. 6–10 weeks total.
02
Three lenses on every problem
Every engagement is staffed with our Expert Trio — three complementary perspectives that ensure what we build is valuable, usable, and architecturally sound. This isn't three people working in sequence. It's three viewpoints applied simultaneously from day one.
Product Context
Led by decades of product experience, we ensure you're solving real, validated problems — whether the customer is internal or external. We define what to build and why it matters, grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
User Experience Context
Our UX strategist ensures your product works for the people who need it. Reducing friction and cognitive load so adoption isn't an uphill battle. The best solution in the world fails if nobody can use it.
Engineering Context
Our architect ensures your product is secure, the data is private, and the resulting code is production-ready. We close the gap between sandbox and production — the place where most AI projects and citizen-built tools die.
03
What we believe about how work should work
These principles aren't aspirational — they're structural. They're built into our engagement model, our pricing, and the way we show up every day.
Understand before you prescribe
Every engagement starts with a Discovery Phase — not a proposal. We interview your people, observe your workflows, and map your situation before we recommend anything. Generic best practices solve generic problems. Your problems aren't generic.
Prove it before you scale it
We never ask you to roll something out organization-wide until we've tested it with real teams and refined it based on what we learned. Untested organizational change is just a document nobody follows. Unvalidated software is just a demo.
Decide at every milestone
You never commit to the full engagement upfront. Every phase ends with a review and a decision point. You've seen the work, you've evaluated the results, and you choose what happens next. No lock-in, no sunk-cost pressure.
Hand over ownership, not dependency
The goal of every engagement is to leave your team self-sufficient. We document everything, train your people, and transfer knowledge systematically. The best outcome is when you don't need us anymore — and you know exactly how to run what we built together.
Enable speed, not chaos
Structure exists to help people move faster with confidence — not to slow things down. Whether that's a builder playbook for teams experimenting with AI tools, or a clear scope and milestone structure for a custom software build, governance should be an accelerant.
Human intelligence is the real product
Modern development tools handle execution. We provide the judgment, architecture, and product wisdom that make the work worth doing. You're paying for what can't be automated — defining the right problem, designing the right system, and building something your team will actually use.
04
How we price
We don't bill for the thousands of lines of code AI writes. We bill for human intelligence — the expertise required to diagnose your situation accurately, design the right solution, and ensure what gets built actually works in the real world.
Predictable Pricing. No Surprises.
Every phase of every engagement has a defined investment, clear deliverables, and a milestone decision point. You know exactly what you're spending before it starts. No surprise invoices, no scope creep, no incentive for us to stretch the work.
Every engagement starts with a $1,500 Discovery Phase — a one-week, fixed-fee diagnostic before we propose anything. From there, build phases are fixed-price and scoped to your situation. After a build is complete, ongoing support is available as a fixed monthly retainer or hourly for smaller one-off requests. You choose what fits.
Custom Software & Automations
8–12 weeks
Starts with a $1,500 Discovery Phase — one week, fixed fee — that maps your workflows and identifies exactly where custom software or automation will have the most impact. You receive a clear diagnosis and a specific recommendation before committing to anything further. Build phases are scoped and fixed-price from there. Ongoing monthly support retainer available after handover, or hourly for one-off requests.
AI Governance
6–10 weeks
Starts with a $1,500 Discovery Phase — one week, fixed fee — that surfaces every AI-assisted tool your teams have already built and maps where the risk lives. You receive a clear risk assessment and a specific governance recommendation before committing to anything further. Assessment, design, and implementation phases are scoped and fixed-price from there. Ongoing governance retainer available for organizations that want continued oversight.
All pricing is scoped to your situation after the Discovery Phase. Book a call and we'll walk you through what to expect.
Book a Discovery CallNot sure where to start?
Every engagement starts the same way — with a Discovery Phase that gives you a clear picture before you commit to anything. Book a 30-minute call and we'll explain exactly what that looks like.