Engagements
Four engagements. Clear scope, clear ownership.
Each engagement type has defined deliverables, boundaries, and responsibilities. Pick the one that fits — or start with Advisory if you're not sure yet.
Advisory & Clarity
Timeboxed, paid clarity that turns "maybe" into a decision. You get a written deliverable — audit, roadmap, or build plan — and a clear recommendation on what to do next.
Best for
- Requirements are unclear and you need structure before committing
- Evaluating an existing system — fix, rebuild, or phase out
- You want a roadmap and budget framing before starting a build
What you get
- Discovery session to map goals, constraints, and dependencies
- Written deliverable: audit, roadmap, or build plan
- Risk and constraint mapping
- Clear recommendation: build, fix, phase, or pause
- Scope definition for the next engagement
- Timeline and budget framing
Not included
- Implementation work (that's a Build Project or Retainer)
- Open-ended access after delivery
- Ongoing advisory relationship beyond the engagement
How it works
- Kickoff call to understand your goals and constraints
- Independent assessment and analysis
- Written deliverable with recommendations
- Review session to walk through findings
- Decision: proceed to Build, Retainer, or pause
What we need from you
- Project goals and known constraints
- Access to existing systems (if applicable)
- Stakeholder availability for the kickoff
- Your decision timeline
Build Projects
Fixed-scope delivery for websites, apps, and systems. Scope, timeline, and acceptance criteria are defined before work begins. You approve at each phase checkpoint.
Best for
- New website, application, or system with a clear end state
- Replacing or rebuilding an existing platform
- Defined scope that can be scoped, priced, and delivered
What you get
- Fixed scope, timeline, and acceptance criteria before work starts
- Proposal with phases and approval gates
- Design, development, and testing
- Deployed, documented delivery
- Handoff to a Care Plan for operations (if applicable)
- Change order process for scope adjustments
Not included
- Ongoing operations or hosting (requires a Care Plan)
- Unlimited revisions after sign-off
- Hosting or monitoring post-launch
- Open-ended feature additions beyond the agreed scope
How it works
- Advisory or scoping engagement (if requirements are unclear)
- Proposal with phases, timeline, and price
- Build with checkpoint approvals at each phase
- Testing and deployment
- Handoff and documentation
What we need from you
- Clear goals or an Advisory deliverable
- Content and assets
- Stakeholder availability for approvals
- Decision authority for sign-offs
- Access credentials for third-party integrations
Care Plans (Hosting & Ops)
Operational ownership, tiered by what your application requires to run reliably. Response expectations, backup strategy, and monitoring are defined per tier — not negotiated ad hoc.
Best for
- Live applications that need reliable hosting and operations
- Systems requiring monitoring, backups, and incident response
- Businesses that need operational ownership without internal ops staff
What you get
- Hosting infrastructure and SSL management
- Uptime monitoring and incident response
- Backup strategy (frequency and retention vary by tier)
- Monthly status reporting
- Defined response expectations per tier
- Security patching and updates (Full Care)
- Client portal access
Not included
- Feature development or redesign (use Build or Retainer)
- 24/7 on-call unless contracted under Enterprise terms
- Unlimited maintenance hours
- Third-party account management
- Content creation or design work
How it works
- Application assessment to determine requirements
- Tier placement based on what the application needs
- Onboarding and migration (if needed)
- Monitoring and operations begin
- Monthly reporting and periodic reviews
What we need from you
- Application access and credentials (shared securely)
- DNS management details
- Third-party service accounts
- Content update requests via the client portal
- Prompt notification of planned high-traffic events
Tier eligibility is determined by application requirements, not preference. Static sites start at Essential; database-backed apps require Managed or higher. Systems involving high-risk operations, regulated data, or complex failure chains may require Enterprise / Custom Ops terms.
Development Retainers
Reserved monthly development capacity for ongoing changes — separate from operations. Your team stays familiar with your codebase and ships from a prioritized backlog each cycle.
Best for
- Live products needing ongoing feature work
- Teams without internal development capacity
- Systems requiring regular changes and improvements
What you get
- Reserved monthly development capacity
- Priority scheduling
- Team continuity — stays familiar with your codebase
- Work across fixes, features, and improvements
- Backlog management with change orders
- Monthly progress reporting
Not included
- Infrastructure or hosting management (covered by a Care Plan)
- Hour rollover month-to-month
- Unlimited scope (backlog is prioritized and bounded)
- Design services beyond implementation specs
How it works
- Scope and capacity discussion
- Retainer agreement with monthly hours
- Backlog setup and prioritization
- Monthly development cycles
- Review and adjust priorities each cycle
What we need from you
- Prioritized feature and change requests
- Acceptance criteria for each item
- Timely feedback on deliveries
- Decision authority for scope changes
- Access to staging and production environments
Hours do not roll over. Retainers are separate from Care Plans — ops and dev are tracked independently. Work is drawn from a prioritized backlog; new requests follow the change order process. Scope is bounded per cycle.