Discovery
The conversation before the commitment.
Many engagements start with discovery, especially the ones that need scoping before they can be priced. But not all do. If you already know you want a product manager, an architect or another defined role, we can skip straight to that conversation. Discovery is an option, not a gate.
A small investment that stops a large one going wrong
Discovery de-risks both sides. You find out what is actually worth fixing before you pay for it to be fixed, and I find out whether the work is one I can deliver well before I take it on.
Clarity before scope
We turn a vague ambition into a specific, named problem with a shape you can make a decision about.
Honest on cost
Some discovery is a free scoping call. Some is a fixed-price assessment with deliverables. You always know which is which before we start.
A direction you own
Whatever we find, you leave with a direction and a view on what to do next, whether or not we go on together.
A direction, not a deck full of findings
- A clear, honest picture of where you are today, not a sales pitch
- The two or three things most worth fixing first, and why
- A straight answer on whether I can help, including if I cannot
- A sense of what a structured engagement would look like and cost, if one is warranted
Discovery takes more than one shape
Some discovery is a conversation that carries no charge. Some is a structured, fixed-price assessment with deliverables you own. Which one you need depends on how much certainty you need before you can decide.
Scoping conversation
45-60 minutes
A focused call to understand your situation, what you are trying to change, and whether a structured engagement is worth exploring. Most engagements start here. You leave with a view on whether it is worth going further, and what the next step would look like.
Discovery workshop
Half a day
A working session with your team to map the problem properly, pressure-test assumptions, and shape a direction. Useful when the situation is genuinely unclear and a call is not enough to tell. Whether it carries a fee depends on the context and the depth involved.
Structured discovery
1-3 weeks
A decision-grade assessment with defined deliverables, a scored baseline, a costed roadmap, or a go or no-go recommendation. This is a piece of work in its own right, and you own the output whether or not we go on to deliver together. It is the mechanism that makes the outcome that follows fix-priceable.
There is no hard rule for which is which. A scoping call is always free. A structured assessment is chargeable because it produces a decision-grade output you keep. In between, a workshop may or may not carry a fee depending on depth, and I will always tell you before we start.