How working together actually goes.
Seven stages, start to finish. Each one says how long it takes, what I need from you, and what you are holding at the end of it — so you can see the whole engagement before you commit to any of it.
Stage 01: Intro call
30 minutes · free
- You describe the problem in your own words. Half-finished ideas are fine — that is normal at this stage. I ask questions, and I tell you honestly whether I am the right person and whether this is a three-week build or a three-month one.
- Thirty minutes, and no preparation.
- A straight answer on fit and a rough size range. No deck, no follow-up sequence.
Stage 02: Discovery sessions
2 to 5 days
- Working sessions, not interviews. We go from “I have an idea” to “here is exactly the thing we are building.” I map the workflow as it runs today, who touches it, what systems it has to talk to, and what happens on the bad days — not just the happy path. Where the idea is still fuzzy, this is where it gets sharp. Most clients tell me they understood their own process better after this than before it.
- Two to three hours of your time, and access to whoever actually does the work today.
- Recorded sessions and a shared document that grows in front of you, so nothing depends on my memory or yours.
Stage 03: Findings and scope
End of week one
- Everything from discovery, written down in one document: the problem in plain language, the current workflow, the proposed workflow, a feature list split into v1 / later / not doing, the technical approach, the risks I can see from here, and what I would cut first if we run tight.
- One review pass. Push back hard — this is the cheapest possible moment to change your mind.
- The findings and scope document. It is yours to keep whether or not you hire me, and it is specific enough to hand to another engineer.
Stage 04: Scope, budget and timeline locked
One number, one date
- Fixed scope, fixed price, dated milestones. No hourly billing and no surprise invoices. If you want something added mid-build it becomes a written change with its own price and its own date — you always see the number before I start.
- A signature and a start date.
- One number, one date, one document.
Stage 05: Build
Weekly cycles
- Every week you get a working demo on a staging URL, plus a short note: what shipped, what is next, what is blocking. You watch the product get built instead of waiting for a reveal. Slack or WhatsApp stays open between demos.
- A reply within a day or two when I ask something. That is it.
- Software you have already used before it goes live.
Stage 06: Launch
Handover week
- Deploy, monitoring, and documentation written for the person who has to run this after me. A handover session, recorded. Thirty days of fixes included.
- Nothing.
- A live product, in your accounts, in your name. Code, repositories and infrastructure have been yours since day one.
Stage 07: After
Optional · monthly
- Some clients keep me on monthly for new features and maintenance. Some do not need me again for a year. Both are fine — there is no lock-in and nothing is held hostage.
- A decision, whenever you are ready to make it. There is no renewal date to miss and no notice period.
- Software that keeps running whether or not I am still on it, and an engineer who already knows the system if you want one.
What this is designed to prevent.
- No fixed price before the scope is understood
- A number quoted against a vague brief is the number that doubles. Yours arrives after discovery, in writing, attached to a specific list of what is being built.
- No scope written by someone who has not watched the work happen
- I sit with the people who do the job today before I decide what the software should do. That is what discovery is for.
- No month of silence
- A working demo on a staging URL every week, with a short written note. You never have to ask where things stand.
- No code you cannot take with you
- Repositories, hosting and accounts are in your name from day one, and the documentation is written for whoever comes next.
The first stage costs nothing.
Thirty minutes, no preparation, and an honest answer on whether this is a three-week build or a three-month one.