How we work
Senior engineering, client-owned everything
Buying work from a small firm shouldn't mean betting on a black box. Our engagement model is designed so you can verify progress continuously and run everything without us afterwards.
The engagement model
- Scoping sprint. Fixed scope, fixed price: workflow selection, feasibility against your data, architecture, decision memo. You can take the memo elsewhere — it's yours.
- Prototype. A working system against real inputs. Evaluation criteria are agreed before we build, so acceptance is a measurement, not a negotiation.
- Production. Hardening, deployment, observability — in your cloud, under your accounts. Weekly demos; continuous delivery instead of a final reveal.
- Handoff. Documentation, runbooks, and architecture decision records. Explicit IP assignment. Transition assistance if you want your team to take over.
Security and delivery practices
These are defaults, not add-ons:
- Client-owned from day one. Code lives in your repositories; systems run in your cloud accounts. No credentials or critical knowledge held only on our side.
- Reproducible infrastructure. Infrastructure as code and scripted deploys — the system can be rebuilt from the repository, not from memory.
- Data handling by design. Data flows, retention, and model-provider choices are documented and agreed before sensitive data moves. Confidential material stays in your environment.
- Human review where it matters. AI outputs that feed real decisions get verification workflows — worklists, evaluation gates, audit trails — as part of the system design.
- Documented decisions. Architecture decision records for the choices that will matter in a year — including the options we rejected and why.
Working with a boutique firm
Every engagement is led and delivered by senior engineering — no sales-to-junior handoff. We limit concurrent engagements, and we add vetted specialists only when the work requires it and you approve it. Continuity is engineered, not promised: because everything is in your accounts and documented, you are never dependent on our availability to operate what we built.
Confidentiality
Much of our work is under NDA and never appears on this site. We publish anonymized methodology where clients approve it, and we're happy to sign a mutual NDA before a first conversation — just say so when you reach out.