You don't need a contractor. You need someone who asks the right questions.
Assessing proposals, choosing the technology, writing the specification and steering the build. You pay for an hour or a block of hours, not a whole project.
Do you recognise yourself in any of these?
You have three quotes and don't know which is fair
They differ by an order of magnitude and all sound convincing. In one call we go through what each one actually offers and where the gaps are.
The team is building, but you have no technical counterpart
You can't check whether what they tell you is accurate, or whether the pace is normal. Someone on your side of the table changes that.
You're choosing a platform and the decision ties you in for years
The wrong choice isn't felt straight away. It's felt in two years, when it turns out the thing you need isn't possible.
You need a specification before you ask for quotes
Without one, every contractor offers something different and the quotes can't be compared. With one, you get numbers you can put side by side.
What exactly you get.
Concrete, with no "and much more". If something on the list isn't for you, it leaves the scope and it leaves the price.
- Intro call and an assessment of where you are
- Written specification for collecting quotes
- Assessment and comparison of other people's proposals
- A technology and architecture recommendation, with the reasoning
- Steering the build and checking deliverables
- Audit of an existing solution with a written report
The process for this service.
At every step you know what we're doing, why we're doing it and what comes next.
Intro call
30 min · no charge
We talk about what you're building, where you are now and where you're going. By the end you know whether this is work for me at all, and if it isn't, I'll tell you who to call.
Discovery and specification
We go deeper: users, processes, integrations and risks. The output is a written specification, a proposed architecture, a phase plan and a fixed proposal, along with the Project plan, the Contract and an NDA. That document is yours even if we don't work together after it.
You don't have to take my word for it. Here's what is already live.
Investment
Payment runs in phases, tied to deliverables, not in full up front. Scope, deadline and price are set in the contract before anything starts.
The things people usually ask at the third meeting.
Before the call you send me the context, I go through it, and on the call we work through your questions. Afterwards you get a short written summary with conclusions and recommendations. The summary is part of the service, because the point isn't the conversation, it's that something is left with you after it.
Yes, and it's one of the most common reasons people come to me. We go through scope, price, deadlines and what the quote doesn't say but should. I have no interest in tearing down someone else's proposal: if it's good, I'll tell you to take it.
Yes. If we go into a project together after the consulting, the hours you paid for are deducted from the proposal.
I do. On larger projects that means a weekly call with you and your contractor, a review of deliverables, and someone holding the plan together. It's billed as a block of hours per month.
Do you actually need something else?
If you have an idea worth doing properly, the first step is a 30 minute conversation.
No proposal and no pressure. You tell me what you're building, I ask the questions nobody has asked you yet, and by the end you know whether it's feasible, roughly what it costs and what the next step is. Whether or not we end up working together.
