The Survey
Find the work worth doing.
Two weeks. We sit with the people doing the work, map how it actually runs, and come back with a ranked list of what to automate, what it saves, and a fixed price to build the first one. If the honest answer is that a spreadsheet formula solves it, the report says that.
- Time
- 2 weeks
- Terms
- Fixed price, quoted up frontCredited in full against The Build
Ten working days
What happens, day by day.
Ten working days. About four hours of your team's time in total.
Week one / find it
- 01Kickoff. Scope the workflows worth a session
- 02Interviews. The people doing the work
- 03Interviews continue
- 04Workshop. One workflow, end to end
- 05Workshop. Systems, data, who owns what
Week two / price it
- 06Scoring. Hours, error cost, systems touched
- 07Security read. What can never leave
- 08Build or buy. Named alternatives
- 09Scorecard to you, before the readout
- 10Readout. Argue. Then the written version
Included
Everything you keep.
- 01
Workflow map of the current state
Three to five interviews with the people who actually do the work, not just the people who describe it. Every handoff, every spreadsheet, every copy and paste.
- 02
A ranked opportunity list
Each candidate scored on annual hours, error cost, how many systems it touches, and how hard it is to build. Ranked by payoff over effort, not by how interesting it is.
- 03
A build-or-buy call on each item
Some of these have an off-the-shelf answer that costs less than we would charge you. We say which ones, by name.
- 04
A data handling and security read
Where your data would go, which of it must never leave your tenancy, and what that constrains. Done in the Survey, not discovered during the build.
- 05
A fixed price for the first build
Not a range. A number, with a scope attached, that we will honour for 90 days.
- 06
A 90-day sequence
What to do first, second and third, with the owner on your side named for each one.
- 07
A live walkthrough
We present it, argue about it, and change it. Then you get the written version, formatted so you can forward it to your board without editing it.
Do this if
- You have a team doing work that feels beneath them and you cannot prove it yet
- You have budget and you want to spend it on the right thing first
- You have been quoted for an AI project and want a second read before you sign
- Someone on the exec team is enthusiastic and nobody has turned that into a plan
Do not, if
- You want a strategy deck for a board meeting and no build after it
- You are mid-way through replacing your system of record
- You have already decided exactly what to build, in which case start with The Blueprint
- Nobody on your side can give us four hours over two weeks
The Survey / questions
What people actually ask.
What if the Survey concludes AI is not the answer?
Then it says so, in writing, with the cheaper thing you should do instead. That is a successful Survey. We would rather charge you once for an honest no than build something you resent paying to keep running.
Is the fee really credited against the build?
In full, against The Build, for 90 days after we hand over. If you take the report to another builder instead, that is a legitimate outcome and the report is written to be vendor-agnostic so you can.
How much of our time does it take?
About four hours total per participant across the two weeks, plus fifteen minutes of prework. We work around your diary, not the other way round.
Who needs to be in the room?
The people doing the work, one person who can approve spend, and whoever owns the systems the data lives in. Three to six people is typical.
What does your team still do by hand?
Thirty minutes. No deck. Sometimes the answer is that you do not need us, and that is a short call.
Book thirty minutes3 engagements at a time