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AUDIT · BUILD · SHIP

How we work

How we work at BrainStormers is three steps: Audit, Build and Ship. You pick one of four engagement models (advisory, hands-on, embedded or fractional) by how involved you want us to be.

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The drawing shows our method as three stages with a sign-off between them and, under it, the workspace where each output lands, from the audit to the runbooks.

Every engagement has the same rhythm. We look before we touch anything, build in short cycles you can see and hand over work your team can run without us. Roger Grekos leads product and Thanos Gkanas leads engineering. On combined work, our SaaS development services put both on one plan.

ENGAGEMENT MODELS

Pick how involved we are

BrainStormers engagement models run from a second opinion to senior people inside your team. Each one can cover product, engineering or both.

How involved do you want us to be?

  • Advisory

    We review, decide with you and write it down; your team does the work.

    You get

    • Working sessions on the decisions that matter
    • Written reviews of plans, code or designs
    • A recommendation you can act on, with the trade-offs spelled out

    Typical shape

    Sessions booked as you need them, or a small monthly block

  • Hands-on build

    We do a scoped piece of work ourselves and hand it over finished.

    You get

    • A written scope and milestones before work starts
    • Working software, research or designs at the end of each cycle
    • Code, accounts and documents in your name
    • A handover your team can run with

    Typical shape

    A fixed scope, reviewed at each milestone

  • Embedded capacity

    Senior people join your team and work inside your process, as in our software team augmentation service.

    You get

    • Engineers or a product lead in your stand-ups and tools
    • Work through your tickets, reviews and release rules
    • Pairing and documentation, so the knowledge stays with you

    Typical shape

    Set days each week, for as long as you need

  • Fractional lead

    A part-time leader who owns decisions in their lane until you hire.

    You get

    Typical shape

    An agreed share of each month, reviewed monthly

Compare options

IN BRIEF

Advisory, hands-on or embedded: which engagement model fits?

Pick the model by how much of the work you want us to do. Choose advisory when your team can do the work and needs senior judgment on decisions such as architecture, roadmap, pricing or hiring. Choose hands-on when the work has a clear scope and you want it done for you, such as an audit, an MVP or a migration. Choose embedded when you need senior people inside your team for months, working through your tickets and your release process.

The fourth model, fractional, fits when a leadership seat is empty: a part-time CTO or product lead who owns decisions in that lane until you hire. Engagements often start small and grow, from advice into a build or from a build into embedded support. If you are weighing us against a hire or an agency, you can also compare hiring options for startups side by side.

How we hand work over when an engagement ends

We plan the handover on day one, not in the last week. Everything we produce lives in accounts you own from the start: repositories, cloud projects, design files, research notes and documents. As the work goes, we write short decision records so the reasons outlast us.

In the final stretch we pair with the people who will own the work and walk them through how it runs, how it fails and how to recover. We update the runbooks and docs where your team actually looks. Then we remove our own access on an agreed date and confirm it in writing. Product work hands over the same way: the research, the roadmap, the pricing notes and the open questions, explained to whoever takes the seat. A good handover means you never need us to understand your own system, and any later call is about new work.

How we work in three steps: Audit, Build, Ship

The same three steps run through every model. Only the depth changes.

  1. 01

    Audit

    We look before we touch anything: code, data, designs, analytics, the backlog and the people. You get a written view of what works, what is at risk and what to do first, ranked, with options.

  2. 02

    Build

    We do the agreed work in short cycles, each ending with something you can see: working software, test results, research notes or a decision record. Scope changes are agreed in writing before they happen.

  3. 03

    Ship

    We release, check that it works for real users and hand over. You get documentation where your team looks, access moved to your accounts and a walkthrough with whoever owns the work next.

Cadence and tooling

We work in your tools and on your calendar. Status lives in writing, so the time we spend together goes on decisions.

  • A weekly written update

    What shipped, what is next, what is blocked and what we need from you. Short enough to read in two minutes, written so you can forward it to your board or investors.

  • A standing working session

    A regular call at the rhythm you choose, used for decisions rather than status. Day-to-day questions go through your chat.

  • Decision records

    Every significant product or technical decision gets a short note: the options, the choice, the reason and who made it. Your next hire reads them instead of guessing.

  • Your tools, your accounts

    Repositories, cloud projects, design files and documents live in accounts you own. We ask for access; we never keep your work in ours.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Security, NDAs and IP

We treat your code, your data and your customers' information as yours from the first day. Access comes through your own accounts, with the narrowest permissions the work needs, and we remove our access when the work ends.

We do not copy your data to personal devices, and we do not paste your code into outside tools you have not approved.

Every engagement is covered by an NDA with full confidentiality, and the IP we create is always yours: the code, the designs and the documents belong to you.

HOW WE QUOTE

How pricing works

Price follows the model and the scope, not the hour count, so every engagement is quoted after a short call.

  • First call: 20-minute intro call
  • Advisory working sessions: quoted after that first call
  • Fixed-scope audits: quoted once the scope is agreed
  • Hands-on builds: quoted once the Audit step has defined the scope
  • Embedded and fractional work: quoted for the people and the share of time you need

Every quote is in writing before work starts. Details on BrainStormers pricing.

FAQ

Questions about how we work

What engagement models do you offer?

Four. Advisory: we review and decide with you. Hands-on: we do a scoped piece of work. Embedded: senior people join your team. Fractional: a part-time CTO or product lead owns decisions in their lane. Each can cover product, engineering or both, and you can move between them.

What do Audit, Build and Ship mean in practice?

Audit means we study what exists before changing anything and give you a written, ranked view of what to do first. Build means doing the agreed work in short cycles you can see. Ship means releasing it, checking that it works for real users and handing it over with documentation your team can use.

How often will we hear from you during an engagement?

Every week in writing, at minimum: what shipped, what is next, what is blocked and what we need from you. Engagements also have a standing working session at a rhythm you choose, and day-to-day questions go through your chat. Important decisions are written down when they are made, not at the end.

Who owns the code and IP we create together?

You do. The IP we create is always yours: the code, the designs, the documents and the decisions written down along the way. The work lives in your repositories and accounts from the first day, so at the end there is nothing to transfer, only our access to remove.

Do you sign NDAs?

Yes. Every engagement is covered by an NDA, and the whole matter stays fully confidential: your code, your data, your plans and your customers' information.

Which tools do you work in day to day?

Yours. We work in the repository host, issue tracker, chat, documents and design tools your team already uses, such as GitHub or GitLab, Jira or Linear, Slack or Teams, and Figma. If you have no setup yet, we propose a light one and create it in accounts you own, so nothing depends on us later.

Staff augmentation or consulting: which model fits us?

Staff augmentation fits when you have a clear backlog and a lead, and need more senior hands working under your direction. Consulting fits when you need outside judgment on a problem and want someone to own the recommendation. Our staff augmentation consulting comparison sets out the costs and trade-offs.

NEXT STEP

Start with an audit

Tell us what you are building and how involved you want us to be. We reply with a suggested model and a first step.

You’ll talk to Roger or Thanos

Book a 20-minute call (opens Google Calendar in a new tab)Tell us about your project (opens our project form in a new tab)