Interview first. That's what makes 48 hours honest.
A traditional discovery call is open-ended on purpose - it's how agencies keep scope flexible and billing hourly. We do the opposite. The interview exists to pin down exactly one broken workflow before any building starts, so the 48-hour build that follows is against a fixed target, not a moving one.
From fixed scope to a working tool - not from first contact to launch.
Three steps, in order, every time
The interview
Before the build
The build
Hour 0-48
Delivery and the retainer
After delivery
The interview
Instead of a vague discovery call, we sit down with you (or a call, whichever is easier) and walk through the one workflow that is actually broken - the paper form, the spreadsheet, the whiteboard, the manual commission math. We ask what happens today, step by step, until the scope is specific enough to build without guessing.
What you do
Show up and describe your week. Bring the spreadsheet, the paper form, or the whiteboard you are dealing with today - real examples make the interview faster and the scope tighter.
The build
We build exactly what was scoped in the interview - one form, one dashboard, or one piece of glue between two systems that do not talk. Nothing wider than that, on purpose, because a fixed scope is what makes a 48-hour timeline honest instead of a marketing number.
What you do
Nothing, unless a question comes up. If it does, it is a quick message, not another meeting.
Delivery and the retainer
You get a working tool, not a demo. From there, a monthly retainer keeps it running - hosting, fixes, small changes, and someone reachable when something breaks. The retainer is the actual relationship. The 48-hour build is just how it starts.
What you do
Use the tool. Tell us what needs adjusting. Cancel the retainer whenever it stops being worth it to you - it is month to month.
The review window
When the build is done, you check it against the scope agreed at the interview - not against a fresh wish list. If it matches what was scoped, it's delivered. If something was missed against the actual agreed scope, that's on us to fix before the retainer starts.
What the review window is for
Confirming the tool does what was scoped at the interview - not opening scope back up.
What it isn't
A second discovery round. New ideas that come up during review are welcome, but they become their own scoped request, not a delay on this one.
The support tail is the retainer
There's no separate "support plan" to buy - the $300-500/month retainer is the support tail. It covers hosting, bug fixes, small changes as your workflow shifts, and a person you can actually reach. It's month to month, so you can cancel whenever it stops being worth it to you.
Small changes
A new form field, a tweak to a report, a small rule change - covered under the retainer.
Bigger requests
A second workflow, or anything that meaningfully changes the shape of the tool, gets scoped and quoted as its own build.
Questions About The Process
Scope, timeline, and what happens if things change mid-build.
That's what the retainer covers. Software that nobody maintains tends to quietly break - a dependency updates, a system it connects to changes something, a browser update shifts how a page renders. The retainer keeps someone actually watching it, not just handing it over and disappearing.
Small adjustments - a new form field, a tweak to how a report looks, a small rule change - are covered under the retainer. Bigger requests, like adding a second workflow entirely, get scoped and quoted as their own small project instead of being silently folded in.
One tool, one workflow: a digital intake and consent form, a package or membership balance tracker, a daily schedule view, a commission calculator, a photo-consent log, an inventory-per-treatment tracker. Not a full practice-management system, not a patient-facing mobile app, not a rebuild of your booking software. If what you need is bigger than that, we will say so at the interview instead of pretending otherwise.
The scope gets fixed at the interview, before the 48-hour build starts. If something changes mid-build, we talk about it - small things get absorbed, anything that meaningfully changes the shape of the tool gets re-scoped as a new build rather than quietly expanding the original one.