YOUR TECHNICAL PARTNER

Building great ideas into successful businesses

Here's how

Prototype fast and then iterate

We believe that the least risky way to achieve your product goals is to stand up a prototype quickly so you can gather data from customers in the real world. We hone our products out of this data, methodically testing assumptions until we know for sure what works. In short: Digital product creation has become a science.

1. Prototype

Stage goals

Focused on defining the initial customer value propsion and mission
Identify the minimum build to get feedback from real customers
Build to minimise cost-to-market

What it's like

It's an all-out race to create a proof-of-concept
Frequent demos of work in progress as components come together
Majority of product and technology decisions prioritise "just enough" or "minimising cost"

Team

1-3 Senior Developers working full time in partnership with your leadership team for typically a couple of months
Strategy consultancy as needed but focused on standing up a build
Communication is focused the work in progress build, and how we can deliver faster

2. Iterate

Stage goals

Focus on customer's feedback to find "product market fit"
Refine business model as you learn from experiments
Build to minimise cost-of-learning

What it's like?

Lots of discussions about customer feedback and where to invest effort
Balancing new ideas against enhancements
Building skills & knowledge within a dedicated team
Establishing shared practices to direct the flow of effort against shifting priorities

Team

Stable development team of up to 5 with supporting roles as required
Maintenance of a live application typically needs 1 day a week minimum
Providing input into recruitment for product focused roles
Communication is focused on customer outcomes

3. Scale

Stage goals

Focus on growth strategies (e.g. improve conversion, partnerships, etc)
Stabilise the product, deal with bottlenecks
Build to deliver on strategy

What it's like?

Growing pains! Teams will be upgrading rudimentary components that have reached their limit, cutting waste from processes, and trying to squeeze in a few interviews for new hires
The planning horizon increases to quarterly or yearly

Team

Increasingly consulting on long-term technology decisions and architecture
At the point where team size is a limiting factor, SH can both scale up and help recruit your in-house team from developers up to CTO level
Communication still focused on customer, incorporating strategy and goals

Services

Consultation

Leaders often need a technical sounding board to better define a problem but do not have the relevant specialisms in their own network.
Entrepreneurs at the idea stage need to find a realistic concept for their available budget. Often a product idea can be validated without writing any code.
Larger organisations often need support to define a technical approach before committing internal resources.
We can also help identify the business processes needed before evaluating software solutions including tailoring off-the-shelf products or custom builds.

Strategy

Team Building

vCTO

Technical Architecture

Recommend technology strategy based on your goals and how the industry is evolving. Knowing which technologies are shifting from custom-build to off-the-shelf, or which engineering skills that are shifting from expensive to source to replaceable with AI.
Craft release plans and development roadmaps that harmonise your long-term vision and short-term revenue goals.
Lead multi-organisation engineering teams in turning high level plans into build plans.

Software Architecture

Solution Architecture

Build

Provide senior engineers across many technical disciplines capable delivering on technology strategy regardless of the languages and tools.
Collaborate with detail oriented developers who understand human-centered design principles and take joy in making beautiful experiences.
Establish high performing teams and help you recruit your own team into key roles.

App Development

Automation

Engineering

Prototyping

Web Development

Web3 / Blockchain / NFT

Maintaince

Ensure the stability and security of your digital products with an evolving maintenance process.
Establish monitoring processes and alerts to catch issues early on.

Clients