before the code
How we decide
We design and build software products. Before scope becomes code, on a first build or a live product, we ask what needs to exist, what breaks later, and what should wait. The answers get written down: what we chose, what we cut, and why.
three questions
We ask while it's still cheap to answer
We ask them with you, before the scope is set. The answers become the scope: what the first version has to do, what has to hold up in production, and what waits, with its reason written down.
question 01
What needs to exist?
Not what could exist… what has to exist. We start from the workflow the product must carry and the person it must carry it for, then cut the scope to what answers that need. Most feature lists shrink under this question. At Hyperlocology, the answer included an editor.
question 02
What breaks later?
Architecture risk, integration risk, the expensive unknowns: auth, money, permissions, hardware that goes offline, the recovery path for the failure you know is coming. Finding these in a conversation costs an afternoon. Finding them in month four costs real money. At CyberNest, an incomplete record gives someone who evaluates risk for a living a reason not to trust the rest of the product.
question 03
What should wait?
Sequence is a decision too: what launch actually needs, what can follow it, and what should stay out entirely. At PebbleSpaces, the full rewrite waited. A thing that waits is written down with its reason, so it comes back on evidence, not on momentum.
not all make the cut
What we cut from past projects
Four calls from live work: a half-built booking product six weeks from launch, a security platform we've built on since its first version, an album experience built in three and a half months, and a website built in one month. Each card says what we turned down or held back, and why, and links to the case study.
our records
Every project keeps a written record
Every engagement keeps a record of the decisions that shaped it, written when they were made, with the reasons attached. We don't publish the logs. The case studies above show the calls they led to.
01
The decision log
A running ledger of the decisions made on the project, written as the discussions happen. When the product's definition changes, the entry says what changed and why.
02
The implementation memo
A Product Inception ends in two things you own: a clickable prototype of the key parts of your product, and a written memo. The memo holds the decisions, the assumptions, the risks, and what was left out, with a recommended path: build, change direction, or pause. It stays the plan if another team does the build.
03
Each month, agreed and reviewed
On a build, we agree what each month will deliver before it starts, and review it with you at the end. If we miss the mark, we finish what we owe before we charge for the next month. You decide what comes next against what was written down, not anyone's recollection.
where it starts
The same questions, wherever you start
It might be a web application, a SaaS product, a booking tool, a customer portal, or an internal tool. You can start with any of the three ways to work, and the questions come with each one.
Product Inception
For a product that isn't clear yet. In one to three weeks, the questions become a clickable prototype of the key parts of your product and a written recommendation: what to build first, what to leave out, the main technical risks, and how to go ahead.
Starting at $10,000.
Product development
For a product you're ready to build. Before each month starts, the questions set what it will deliver, and we review it with you at the end.
From $25,000 a month. A typical build is $100k–$200k over four to five months.
Embedded partnership
For a product that's already live, whether we built it or not. We finish one agreed piece of work before we start the next. The questions decide what the next piece is and what waits, and you set the priorities.
Starts at $8,000 a month, with a three-month minimum.
Not sure where to start? The fit call is free and takes thirty minutes. We talk through your product and find the right starting point.