The method behind every build
Requirements by Design

Clarity before code.

Most of the risk in custom software lives in the gap between what you need and what gets built. We close that gap first, then build in sprints you can see and approve. Here's how that works, and what it means for your budget.

Fixed bid, committed in the room· Full transparency, always· Bugs fixed under warranty
The shape of a project
1
We learn your operation
The problem and how your team really works, in your language.
2
We define the product
Every screen, rule, and edge case written down. The fixed bid lands here.
you approve before we build
3
We build in sprints
Working software early and often, so nothing drifts off course.
4
We launch, then stay
Named people run and improve the system for years.
01 The method

We design the product before we build it.

We call it Requirements by Design. Before anyone writes code, we map exactly what the system has to do, what it doesn't, and how every part fits your operation. That work is refined through design itself, screen by screen, and it drives everything we build.

01 · DISCOVERY

We learn your operation

We dig into the problem and how your team really works. Plain language, a hundred questions, no tech-speak.

02 · REQUIREMENTS BY DESIGN

We define the product

Every screen, rule, and edge case, worked out through design. You read it and approve it before we build.

03 · BUILD IN SPRINTS

We build one piece at a time

Each sprint delivers something you can use and react to, so nothing drifts off course between demos.

04 · LAUNCHED AND CARED FOR

We launch, then stay

We run and improve the system for years, as the team that knows it best.

“Counterpart spent almost five hours, sitting down and going through line by line what it is that we wanted to do to really understand our project… I needed a ticketing system and they were finishing my sentences before I was even done.”

Clayton Thompson · Founder & CEO, Membershine · see the story →
02 The budget

Fixed price. Scoped to complexity, not to a clock.

We do everything based off complexity, not on time. You approve the bid before we build, so the number doesn't move while we work.

The number, in the room: we commit to the figure and estimate the timeline before the scoping session ends.
A CHANGE COMES UP · 01

We raise it in the open, the day we see it.

02

We scope just that piece on its own, in writing.

03

You decide before any work or cost is added.

04

The original bid holds for everything else.

What the fixed bid covers

The product we defined together in Requirements by Design: built, tested, and delivered for the price you approved.

What it doesn't cover

Brand-new scope no one planned for. When that comes up we price it on its own, and you choose. All our projects run with full transparency.

Bounded risk

Start with a short discovery. If it isn't the right fit, you keep the requirements document and walk away owing nothing further. We only start a project once we're both confident it's the right one to build.

03 The delivery

Value early, in sprints. No big-bang gamble.

We don't vanish for a year and hope. The system arrives one working sprint at a time, so something real is in your hands early and you steer with every release. Watch the difference:

How we deliver
Sprint 1● LIVE
The core workflow
The one thing that has to work, working, in weeks.
Sprint 2● LIVE
The next priority
Chosen with you, based on what sprint 1 taught us both.
Sprint 3● LIVE
Onward from there
The system grows in steps you can see, fund, and stop.
The big-bang alternative
months of silence, work you can't see… value arrives late, if it arrives
Same calendar. Only one approach is earning its keep the whole way.
04 After launch

Then we stay.

"We become the long-term steward of the complex system your organization runs on."

Named people keep your system running, secure, and improving for years. Keep building with us and we fix bugs for free. We call it the continual-improvement warranty.


a system we launched in 2013 ·   · still running

See how we'd scope your project.

Tell us the challenge in a sentence or two. We'll reply within a business day with how we'd approach it, and you'll have a number before we ever ask for a commitment.

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