From first call to working systems, the same way every time.
Five stages from discovery to aftercare. Each with a duration, a price, and something concrete to leave with, so you can decide what’s worth doing next instead of committing to everything up front.
How a project actually runs.
You can stop after any stage. No long contract. No automatic roll-on.
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Discovery call
A short call. No slides, no pitch deck. We ask what's wasting time, where the friction is, and what a useful first system might look like. We're working out whether the audit is worth booking. You're seeing whether we're the right team to run it. If it isn't a fit, we say so.
You leave with A clear answer on whether to go further, and a sense of what the audit would focus on. -
Pare Audit
One day inside the business mapping how work actually moves through enquiries, quotes, jobs, admin, documents, payments, and customer communication. The rest spent analysing what's costing you most, where AI or automation would pay back fastest, and what the most useful first project would look like. Sometimes we build a working prototype during the audit if it'll help the decision.
You leave with A written report ranking your top opportunities by risk and ROI, with a recommended first build scoped and costed. Yours to keep, whether you continue with us, do it in-house, or do nothing.See the full audit deliverables → -
Focused sprint
The first useful thing from the report, built end-to-end. A single named owner, agreed success criteria, and a fixed fee. No hourly billing, no scope creep, no surprise change orders. Sized to complexity, from a one-week workflow automation to a multi-week system build.
You leave with A working version of the recommended first project, ready to launch. -
Launch
We deploy into your production systems, integrate with the tools you already use, train the people who'll use it day-to-day, and write up what we built so it isn't living in our heads. You own the code, the configurations, and the accounts. Nothing locks you in.
You leave with A working system in production, in your team's hands, fully documented. -
Aftercare
Once you’re live, things change. Usage patterns shift, business priorities move, AI models themselves get better. A small monthly retainer keeps an eye on what’s running, fixes what breaks, tunes what could be better, and queues up the next round of improvements. No long contract. Pause, return, or stop at any point.
You leave with Steady improvement instead of abandoned software.
Looking for a senior partner across AI, software, or design rather than a single project? See the Fractional Partner shape below.
Embedded, but not employee-like.
The model is unusual on purpose. These are the principles that keep it working for both sides.
Embedded, not employed
We work close enough to understand the business properly. Every engagement is scoped around clear outcomes, agreed priorities, and defined deliverables. Not unlimited access. Not random tasks. Not staff cover.
Senior, not silver-bullet
You get the same people on every project. Experienced, hands-on, and accountable. We use AI and modern tooling internally to move faster, but you’re hiring judgement, not a black box.
Fixed-fee, fixed scope
Every block is priced up front. Audit, sprint, retainer. No hourly billing, no open-ended discovery, no surprise change orders. You know what you’re committing to before you commit.
No long contracts
Engagements run audit by audit, sprint by sprint, month by month on the retainer. You can pause, return, or stop. We earn the next block of work by being useful in this one.
AI changes what one day buys you.
Most companies still measure technical work in agency-weeks and multi-month projects. That maths no longer holds. We project-manage modern AI tools the way an old-school consultancy project-managed a team of juniors. Same output, a fraction of the time.
A useful first system is often a few days of senior capability, not a six-week build. The audit is where we work out exactly what your version looks like.
What it costs
Three commercial shapes. All fixed-fee. Designed to ladder from a paid audit into scoped builds, with optional ongoing support.
Pare Audit
You leave with three things.
- A workflow and systems review
- 3–5 prioritised AI opportunities, scored by risk and ROI
- A written recommendation with a costed first build
Fractional Partner
A senior AI, software, and design partner inside your team, without hiring a CTO or Design Lead full-time. Roadmap ownership, build oversight, vendor selection, and hands-on delivery as needed.
Scoped Projects
Get in touch →A defined build with a named owner, agreed success criteria, and a fixed fee. Sized by complexity, from a small workflow to a full system build. Quoted after a short scoping call.
Find out where Pare fits.
Book a call to talk through the problem. If it’s a fit, we’ll organise the audit and come back with a costed first build.