Research & discovery for technology-led companies and the teams that build or back them
I investigate the market, the technology and the way the work actually happens. You get a clear recommendation, the evidence behind it, and a practical scope and requirements your team or vendor can act on.
When this is useful
The work starts when a decision matters, but the problem is still defined differently by everyone in the room.
I turn assumptions, disagreements and constraints scattered across meetings into a clear question, options and decision criteria. If the project moves forward, I translate the decision into implementation requirements.
Interviews and process analysis expose the actual conflict before a team builds a compromise nobody needs.
Claims need to be translated into measurable criteria, tested where possible and compared against the real use case.
I combine desk research with expert or customer interviews to produce a recommendation, including reasons not to proceed.
The work
Each engagement starts with the business question and ends with a decision, an assessment or working requirements. The methods fit the question, not the other way around.
For an important initiative with an open question, unclear boundaries or requirements that have not yet been written down.
The decision question and the problem behind it
Options and the criteria for choosing between them
A recommendation and the evidence behind it
Solution boundaries and prioritized requirements for the first version
Risks, assumptions and unresolved unknowns
Clear next steps for your team or vendor
Typical inputs: stakeholder interviews, workflow analysis, market and solution research, technical review and targeted experiments.
Ask about this format ↗Independent evaluation of a technology, vendor, partner, investment or emerging market.
Senior research and decision support for a few days a month, or for a complex cross-functional question that does not fit an existing role.
Who usually buys this
CEOs, COOs, product and operations leads committing budget to a new digital initiative.
Agencies that need a senior discovery partner to interview the client and define the work before scoping and pricing it. White-label is welcome.
Independent technical and market research before a commitment to a company, vendor or emerging theme.
Selected projects
Client work is anonymised where required. These summaries show the starting question, the research and what changed. The profile includes work you can read in full.
How I work
I choose the depth and methods the decision requires. The result is concise, usable and clear about what is known, inferred and still unproven.
What needs to be decided, who will decide it, by when, and what changes with the answer?
Technologies, implementation approaches, market, documents, interviews and the smallest useful experiment.
A recommendation with alternatives, solution boundaries, requirements, risks and next actions.
Questions
We start with a short call to define the decision, the stakes and what is already known. If the question is bounded, I propose a one-to-two-week Decision & Discovery Sprint with a clear outcome and fee. If another format fits better, I will say so.
Before implementation or alongside its earliest stage: clarifying the problem, interviewing stakeholders, comparing options and producing requirements. I can work directly with your delivery team or white-label inside an agency engagement.
Yes. I start with the problem AI is expected to solve and compare it with simpler options. If AI is the right fit, I identify a useful pilot and define how success will be measured. If it is not, I recommend the simpler system.
The conclusion will say so. I distinguish observed facts, supported inferences and unresolved unknowns, then name what evidence or experiment would change the decision.
I have a software-engineering background, can read code and test technical claims, and build my own products. I use that depth to improve discovery and assessment work; I do not take staff-augmentation engineering roles.
Contact
Three sentences are enough, but the full context is welcome: what you are trying to decide, what is unclear, what depends on the answer and your deadline. I reply within one working day.