Ashley PayneAI • SOFTWARE • SYSTEMS
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The Leverage Diagnostic · Two weeks, fixed

Two weeks to find what’s costing you, and prove the fix.

Two weeks, £7,500, fixed. I get called in for one of two symptoms: a number going the wrong way that nobody can explain, or a process leaking with nobody able to say where. I find the explanation in your own systems, test the assumption the fix depends on, and price the fix.

Start here Read a worked illustration

What it is

The Leverage Diagnostic.
Two weeks, fixed, £7,500.

All prices exclude VAT.

I find what’s costing you, test the risky assumption, and price the fix.

Two weeks is the window, not billed days, and the price doesn’t change with the size of the business. It’s also how I work on the projects I’m already inside; the fortnight packages it.

It also works on software you already have, when the question is who owns what; the software audit page covers that version.

Start here

What the two weeks are

  1. Triage

    What’s costing you, found and ranked.

  2. Diagnose

    Why, worked out from your own systems.

  3. Prove

    The riskiest assumption tested, and the result written down before anyone builds on it.

  4. Decide

    What to build, in what order, and what it costs.

What “prove” means

We pick one on the first call and write it into the engagement, with the deliverable and its test named before you commit. If we can’t scope either, I’ll say so and we don’t start. A longer document never stands in for the software we agreed.

A working proof

When There’s a real chance the thing can’t be built, or can’t be built the way everyone assumes.

You get Software that runs, the assumption it tests, the test it had to pass, the result, what it leaves out on purpose, and the source code.

A decided question

When The build is understood but nobody knows if it fixes the real problem, or nothing can be stood up in two weeks.

You get An experiment on your own data with the pass mark agreed first, the result, and what it settles, even when that’s “don’t build it”.

If you already know

Already have a brief I can build from? You don’t need this; ask for a quote and it’s free.

Quoting is free. The fortnight is for when nobody can yet say what to quote for. Those four are what a fixed number needs, and without them a quote is a guess. With all four you get a fixed price, and missing one you get a range and the assumptions written next to it.

A brief I can quote against has four things in it

  • What done looks like, including how fast, how available and how secure it has to be, and what is deliberately out of scope
  • Representative data with its shape, its volumes and the awkward cases, or the interface contracts that carry the same detail
  • Where the code lives now, what it integrates with, how it gets deployed, what has to be migrated, and any regulatory constraints
  • One named person who can settle an open question inside an agreed time

The shapes an engagement takes

Diagnostic

two weeks, £7,500

The way into all three: what’s wrong, what it’s costing, and what fixing it takes.

Build

quoted from a specification

The thing itself, built and handed over, from the diagnostic’s spec or one you bring. Six to twelve weeks is the usual shape, and the spec turns that into a number.

Partner

£2,000 to £7,500 a month

The decisions keep coming after launch, so a support retainer of two days a month, or a retainer of a day or two a week. Month to month, 30 days’ notice.

A build gets a price once there’s a spec to price. All prices exclude VAT.

What you get

One agreed proof and a decision you can act on: what’s costing you, ranked, with the evidence, then the proof we agreed (a working proof or a decided question), then a spec good enough for someone else to quote from. All of it is yours whether or not I build it.

Read a worked illustration

Questions

The things people ask first

What is the Leverage Diagnostic?

A fortnight spent inside your business on one question. I find what’s costing you and rank it, work out why from the systems you already run, and test the riskiest assumption in the plan before anyone builds on it. You come out of it with a specification and a decision you can act on, both of them yours to take anywhere.

What do I get from “prove”?

One of two things, which we agree on the first call, before you commit, and if neither can be scoped in that call we don’t start.

Both are set out in full further up this page, under What “prove” means: a working proof where the thing might not be buildable, a decided question where the build is understood and nobody knows whether it fixes anything.

Am I paying £7,500 for a quote?

No. If a quote is all you need, don’t pay for one. Send me a brief I can build from and I’ll quote it for nothing.

The four things it needs are listed further up, under If you already know, with what a partial brief gets you instead. All prices exclude VAT.

The diagnostic is for when nobody can yet say what to build. Once that’s settled, costing it is straightforward.

What if the answer is that I should not build anything?

Then that’s the answer, written down with the evidence under it. A build that works and fixes nothing costs a great deal more than £7,500, and I’d rather say so in week two than let you find out in month six.

Where it leads

Build, Partner or Consult

The diagnostic ends with a spec and a decision. What happens next is one of these three, or nothing, and I don’t know which until the two weeks are done.

Build

Hands-on engineering

  • Product design & architecture
  • Full-stack development
  • Desktop, browser-extension and chat clients
  • APIs & integrations
  • Cloud & DevOps
  • AI-enabled features where useful
Build with me

Work with me

Ready to find out what it’s costing you?

Tell me what’s moving that you can’t explain.

Tell me the problem See selected work