Tax credit platform · Fintech · 2023–2024
How should it all fit together? First, see how it really runs.
Six weeks to map how your business really works, then design the system it needs: data, tools, people, and where AI belongs.
- Length
- Six weeks
- Price
- Fixed, quoted after the evaluation
- You leave with
- A map of the business as it really runs, and a design to build from.
When to bring us in
It usually starts with a symptom.
People rarely call about architecture. They call because something keeps going wrong, and the fixes so far haven’t held.
Every new feature takes longer than the last.
We have a good team,
and no clear next thing to build.We know AI could help.
We can’t say where.Only one person knows how it all fits together.
We’re about to hire a team or choose a vendor,
and want the brief right first.
How it runs
Six weeks, in three parts.
The thinking is the work. Nothing gets built until the design is done, which is what lets the building that follows move fast.
- Weeks 1–2
01
Listen
Conversations with the people who run the business, the people who do the work, and the people it serves. We follow the money, the data, and the decisions.
Interviews and walkthroughs - Weeks 3–4
02
Map
The business as it really runs: the systems, where the data lives and who trusts it, and where the handoffs break.
The map - Weeks 5–6
03
Design
The system it needs, where AI pays off and where it doesn’t, and the order to build it in.
The design and the plan - Then
04
Decide who builds it
Your own team, a partner, or us. The design is written so any of them can quote from it.
Delivery, if it’s us
You leave with
Written to outlast us.
Plain language and diagrams your team can read and build from, long after the six weeks. If a design can’t be built from, it isn’t finished.
The map
How the business runs today: the systems, the data, the people, and the decisions that pass between them.
The design
The system it needs: what should exist, what shouldn’t, and how the pieces fit together.
Where AI belongs
Where it pays off, where it doesn’t, and what has to be true before it can.
The trade-offs
What each choice costs in money, time, and complexity, so you decide with the bill in view.
The plan
What to build first, who should build it, and who carries it forward.
What it isn’t: a slide deck, or a shortlist of tools.
Where we’ve done this
In both, the design came first.
Two engagements where the map changed the plan.
Voice AI startup · Plumbing and HVAC · 2021–2022
They asked why the team was so slow.The team had never seen the whole product.
Read the case study: Voice AI startupHow it starts
Most engagements start with the evaluation.
A conversation, then a two-week evaluation. If architecture is the right next step, the evaluation will say so.
First
A conversation
Bring the question you can’t quite phrase yet. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so, and point you to who is.
Not a pitch
Then
Strategy evaluation
Two weeks on the plan, the product, or the AI idea. You get a recommendation, the trade-offs behind it, and which engagement you need, if any.
Two weeks · $7,500 fixed
If it’s the right step
Systems architecture
The six weeks on this page, at a fixed price quoted from what the evaluation found.
Six weeks · fixed price This page
Questions
Fair questions.
Do we have to start with an evaluation?
It’s the usual way in, because it tells us both whether architecture is the right next step. If you’re sure it is, tell us why when we talk. If the reasons hold, we can start with the architecture.
Who needs to be involved on our side?
The people who run the business, and the people who do the work. The map is only right if it’s drawn from both.
We already have engineers. Is this still for us?
Often more so. The design is written for your team to build from, and they know corners of the system no one else does.
Does it include building anything?
No. It ends with a design and a plan. If you want us to build the first version, that’s Delivery: fixed scope, in phases.
What if the answer is that we don’t need new software?
Then that’s the answer, and you’ll have it in writing. Sometimes the fix is a process, not a product.
Services
Three other ways in.
Each starts with the problem you can see.
Strategy evaluation
Not sure where to start?
Two weeks · $7,500 fixedHow it works
02Delivery
Who’s going to build it?
Fixed scope, in phasesHow it works
03Fractional CTO
Who’s making the technical calls?
Two quarters, then reviewHow it works
Talk it through
Bring the question you can’t quite phrase yet.
That’s usually the right place to start.
A conversation, not a pitch. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so, and point you to who is.