THE ENGAGEMENTS
How a build continues, if you want it finished.
The engagement shapes below are the mechanism behind the build, not the product. After the seven days, if you want the artifact finished, we propose one of these — the shape chosen to fit the build, never the other way round.
The seven days end with a working first piece of the build in your hands. If you want the rest, we propose a bounded engagement. The letter names the artifact, the fee, and the date. We do not negotiate the scope inside the fee; if the scope changes, we re-contract.
Most builds finish under one of the two shapes below — a sprint or a build-and-operate engagement. See the builds themselves →
THE USUAL FIRST STEP
SPRINT SERIES
A bounded sprint, or a short sequence of them, that finishes the build the seven days started. Each sprint is 3–4 weeks and closes with the artifact shipped inside your environment. This is the usual way a model, a reporting pack, or a dashboard goes from working-first-piece to finished. The fee is fixed, the dates are named upfront, and we do not run two sprints in parallel — the discipline is sequencing.
WHEN IT FITS
A bounded build that finishes in weeks, not quarters — a unit-economics model, a board reporting pack, a first reporting-spine slice. The thing your team has had no time to build, shipped clean and handed back.
SAMPLE SHAPE OF THE DELIVERABLE
Build the cross-entity board reporting pack and metric dictionary: one consolidated pack that ties out across the sites, a documented collection cadence, and the first real pack shipped — handed to a named internal owner.
THE DEEPER BUILD
BUILD & OPERATE
For the larger build — a data and reporting spine, a regulatory filing automation — that needs a real integration period and a named internal owner at handover. We design, build, integrate, and operate the artifact ourselves for an agreed period — typically 90 days — then transfer it to a named owner inside your team. The fee covers everything from the first session to the handover memo. We do not bill the iterations.
WHEN IT FITS
A build with real engineering depth that produces measurable output on a steady cadence once shipped — a reporting spine wired to source systems, a filing automation that runs every period without manual assembly.
SAMPLE SHAPE OF THE DELIVERABLE
Stand up the data/reporting spine: a consolidated reporting layer with a clean metric dictionary, the highest-value first slice live in a sprint, the full spine built and operated for 90 days, then transferred to a named internal owner.
LESS OFTEN
Two further shapes exist for the rare engagement that outgrows a single build. A Department-as-a-Service engagement runs a function you cannot hire fast enough to fill, for a fixed term under our supervision. A Transformation Programstands up a defined operating-model shift the board has decided to make. Both are mandate-scale; both are agreed only on the principal’s sign-off, and neither is where most files begin. The firm leads with the bounded build, not the standing mandate.
OUT OF SCOPE
The firm does not bill hours. The firm does not extend an engagement without an explicit re-contract signed by both principals. The firm does not deliver slides as the artifact. The firm does not take work that would have us run your operation rather than ship you a build.
These are not selling points. They are constraints we will not relax — including for the right client at the right fee.
Every engagement begins with the seven days.
The diagnostic is free and bounded — one build, one week, a working artifact in your hands at the end. Nothing follows unless you ask in writing.