Services

Most of the businesses I see are running a custom app a vendor built four to seven years ago. That vendor has moved on. The tools they have bought since don't talk to each other, so every Monday someone exports CSVs by hand to make the numbers line up. Usually that someone is the owner.

I start by sorting what works from what doesn't. Some pieces get ported, some get replaced with something off the shelf, and some get retired. The point is a stack your team can run without me.

A typical engagement covers:

• A line-by-line audit of the current stack
• A modernization plan with the riskiest parts sequenced first
• A keep, replace, or retire call on each custom piece
• An integration plan that connects the tools you keep
• A first sprint scoped to one shipped milestone

Most of these start with an audit, then a build sprint. A retainer only follows if your team wants ongoing support.

There's a point in a growing business where the owner is making the technical calls alone: which vendor to pick, whether to build or buy, when to walk away from a tool that isn't working. These are expensive to get wrong, and there's usually no senior tech voice in the room for them.

I sit next to the owner as that voice. That means vendor calls, roadmap reviews, and hiring loops. The work runs at one to four days a week, depending on what the business needs that month.

In practice, that looks like:

• Weekly working sessions with the owner
• Help reviewing and choosing vendors
• A seat in hiring loops for product, engineering, and design
• Roadmap reviews and prioritization calls
• Email and Slack access inside agreed hours

It starts with a short leadership diagnostic, then settles into a weekly retainer sized to the business.

Most owners know they should be doing more with AI and aren't sure where to start. The useful wins usually aren't chatbots. They're the dull, repetitive workflows that eat a person's Monday morning, like order routing, reconciliation, and follow-up.

I map those workflows, score them by hours saved and risk if they're wrong, and build the few worth building with tools your team can maintain. This pairs naturally with modernization work.

A typical engagement leaves you with:

• A read on where AI fits in your current stack
• A list of workflows ranked by time saved
• Two to four working automations
• Documentation a vendor or new hire can pick up
• A plain-language check-in after 60 days running

It runs as a short readiness review, then a build sprint. A retainer is optional, for tuning and the next round.

You're building a customer-facing app or portal and you're not sure what to keep and what to cut. Or you're sketching one and the scope keeps growing. A couple of weeks of focused discovery can save a few months of building the wrong thing.

I talk to you, your team, and a handful of your customers, then look hard at what already exists. You get back a one-page direction your team can act on without me.

The work produces:

• Interviews with five to eight customers and team members
• A review of the existing product, where there is one
• A one-page product direction
• A prioritized backlog with the cuts called out
• A handoff brief for a build team, if you need one

It's usually a two-week audit, then a short strategy sprint. It's the easiest place to start if you're not sure which of these fits.