What to prepare before commissioning an app or SaaS

Why prepare

A first release goes fastest when the questions only you can answer are answered before work starts. None of this needs to be polished: a page of notes is enough. Here is what we ask for, and why.

1. The problem and the people

• Who uses it, and what are they trying to get done?
• What do they do today instead, and what is wrong with it?
• What would tell you, three months after launch, that it worked?

2. The first release, and what waits

Write down the one job the first release must do for real users. Our starting scope is built around that: product design, accounts, a database and one integration, such as payments or an AI service, tested and launched on your own accounts.

Then write the list of what can wait. The starting price covers a focused first release with one integration, such as payments or an AI service. Further features, integrations and complex data migration are quoted separately.

3. Accounts, in your name

The product runs on your own accounts, never ours, so it is yours from the first day. Expect to open, or give access to:

• Hosting for the application
• The database
• Any paid service it uses: payments, email, an AI service
• Your domain

Hosting, domains, paid assets and third-party services are separate. Any applicable tax is shown in your quote.

4. Data

• What the product stores, and about whom
• Where existing data lives, and whether it has to move (complex migration is its own scope)
• Anything that limits where data may be kept or who may see it

5. If AI is part of the product

Using AI to build software and building an AI feature are different things. We use AI throughout delivery either way. An AI feature in your product needs four answers before it is built:

• What it should do, with examples of good and bad answers
• How its answers will be checked
• Which data it may use, and which it must not
• What it may cost to run, per use or per month

6. Who decides

One person who can approve a design, accept a release and answer our questions. Every decision comes to them to sign off.

What you receive

Designs, code in your repository, tests and written setup guidance. For 14 days after handover, we correct defects against the agreed scope at no extra cost. Ongoing maintenance and new work are covered separately.

Publishing to the App Store or Google Play, and running the hosting for you, are outside our standard scope. See what product development covers.