00Paid discovery sprints
Settle the scope and the price before the build starts.
A discovery sprint maps one workflow, builds a working prototype, tests the integration risks, and defines exactly what to build. You keep every artifact whether or not Aptixx builds the system.
01What the fee buys
The budget is decided in discovery, not in the build.
A fixed fee buys one to three weeks of senior engineering attention on a single workflow.
What comes back is a scope boundary, a data model, named integration risks, and a budget band you can hold Aptixx to. Change orders come from assumptions nobody tested; the sprint tests them while they are still cheap.
02What you leave with
Five artifacts, yours to keep.
Every sprint ends in the same package, written to be usable by any builder — including one that is not Aptixx.
- 01Workflow map — The process as it runs today — handoffs, exceptions, workarounds, and the records people keep on the side.
- 02Working prototype — The core screens or the calculation model, built with your vocabulary and your sample data, so the team can argue with something real.
- 03Integration risk assessment — Every system the workflow touches — ERP, CRM, accounting, file stores, hardware — with what each exposes and which connections are expensive.
- 04Build definition — Scope boundary, data model, roles and permissions, and what Aptixx deliberately will not build. Written to hand to any competent builder.
- 05Budget band for the MVP — A cost and time range for the smallest system worth shipping, with its assumptions stated where you can challenge them.
Price and credit. Sprints are priced between $3,500 and $9,500 USD depending on scope, and the number is fixed in writing before work starts — there is no hourly meter. You keep every artifact either way, and if you proceed with the build, the sprint fee is credited against it. MVP pricing is scoped after the sprint, never before.
The call that sets your number takes 20 minutes and costs nothing. Booking a sprint is a separate decision, made after the scope and the fee are in writing.
03Six sprints
Pick the sprint that matches the risk.
Each one maps a different uncertainty: moving work, permissions, contested math, customer intake, first-product scope, or leaking hours. All six end in the same five artifacts, produced the way Aptixx builds operational software.
Factory Workflow Sprint
Maps one production or intake workflow end to end: arrival, stages, handoffs, exceptions, and the records the floor keeps. Built for manufacturing and production operations where work moves faster than the paperwork.
→ Choose this when work moves between people and no system can say where it is
Regulated Operations Sprint
Maps who may act, what must be recorded, and what an auditor has to see — then names where the current process cannot prove it. Produces a compliance blueprint alongside the build definition. The same discipline runs through regulated operations work and Trazo OS, where row-level security is verified enabled on 117 of 117 tables.
→ Choose this when the risk is not speed — it is proving what happened
Pilot Evidence Sprint
Builds a working prototype and the calculation model beneath it, so a contested assumption gets tested before anyone commits. Staffing and capacity models get proven this way: the model first — locked assumptions, what-if scenarios, Excel in, Excel out — then the system around it.
→ Choose this when the math, not the interface, is what is in dispute
Conversion System Sprint
Maps the customer-facing path: how a request arrives, what it must carry, who responds, what the customer sees, and where the back-and-forth leaks. Ends in a defined intake and customer or partner portal flow, not another contact form.
→ Choose this when every new customer costs a week of email
MVP Definition Sprint
Turns a product plan into a build you can price: the core loop users pay for, the first data model, accounts and roles, and the integrations it cannot ship without. Built for founders on the MVP development path, where runway is the constraint.
→ Choose this when the product is a deck and the next meeting needs a number
Cost-Bleed Audit Sprint
Follows the work, not the org chart: where information is entered twice, waits, or gets rebuilt for a report. Each manual step comes back with its cost in your numbers and what automating it would involve — including the steps not worth automating.
→ Choose this when payroll is doing work software should do
04The deal, both ways
Access and answers are the only real dependencies.
Everything outside the boundary is named here, not discovered mid-sprint.
What you provide
- 01The person who runs the workflow — Access to the operator, not only the executive sponsor. A few working sessions across the sprint, in short blocks.
- 02Real documents and real data — The actual spreadsheet, the actual form, the actual report. Redacted is fine; invented samples waste the sprint.
- 03Decisions inside the window — When a trade-off needs an owner, someone answers within days. A sprint stalls on unanswered questions, not on engineering.
What a sprint is not
- —No production code beyond the prototype — The prototype exists to settle questions. It is not hardened or deployed; the production system is scoped and priced separately.
- —No open-ended research — The scope boundary is set before the sprint starts and does not drift. New questions get logged and priced in the open.
- —No staffing — You are buying a mapped workflow and a defined build, not developer-months billed against a calendar.
The fit call is 20 minutes, free, and ends in a recommendation either way — including when the answer is not a sprint.
05Where the sprint sits
Each step is bought separately, from fit call to retainer.
The sprint is step two. Nothing in it obliges you to take step three.
01 — Fit call
20 minutes, free
Confirm the workflow, the buyer, the urgency, and which sprint fits. If Aptixx is wrong for the work, you hear it here.
02 — Discovery sprint
1–3 weeks, paid
Map, prototype, de-risk the integrations, define the build. Scope agreed in writing before day one.
03 — Operational MVP
Scoped after the sprint
The smallest production system that changes how the work runs, priced against the build definition.
04 — Improve
Covered, on retainer
After handoff, an optional monthly retainer keeps Aptixx on call — support, monitoring, and the next workflow. Month to month, and the system stays yours either way.
Field and marine teams start at the workflow map — see how that ran on the marine draft-survey platform and across field and marine operations.
06Before you book
Pricing, ownership, and what happens if you walk away.
Nine answers covering cost, code ownership, access control, integrations, and what you keep if the build never happens.
Why is discovery paid?
Because it is engineering work with a deliverable attached. The fee buys focused senior engineering time and returns five artifacts you own outright.
It also protects you: the sprint is the cheapest place to learn the project is smaller, larger, or different than it looked — before a build budget is committed. If you proceed with the build, the sprint fee is credited against it.
Will this work with the ERP, CRM, and vendor systems you already run?
Yes — the sprint is where each connection gets tested rather than assumed. The integration risk assessment names every system the workflow touches. It records whether each exposes an API, a scheduled file drop, or nothing usable, and marks which connections are expensive.
Aptixx builds around the systems you keep; replacing your ERP is not the plan. A hard connection surfaces during the sprint with a cost attached, not during the build with an invoice attached.
Who owns the source code and the data?
You do — both. Everything lands in your repository from the first commit: application code, migrations, schema, and documentation. The system runs in accounts you control, and the data stays yours. No license back to you for your own system, and no clause that makes leaving expensive.
After handoff, is your team on its own?
No. Every build hands over clean: code, documentation, credentials. From there, an optional monthly retainer keeps Aptixx on call for support, monitoring, small changes, and the next highest-value workflow. It is month to month, and you can drop it whenever you want — you own the system regardless.
How is access controlled, and who can see your data?
Access control is designed at the start, not added at the end: named roles, least privilege, and permissions enforced in the database, not only in the interface.
Two systems show what that means. Trazo OS runs nine operational roles with more than 50 distinct permissions enforced on every endpoint. Row-level security is verified enabled on 117 of 117 tables in a live database audit. The marine survey platform ships with role-aware access, public signup disabled, and the first administrator bootstrapped by an operator.
Can the sprint stand alone, without a build?
Yes. It is scoped, priced, and delivered as a complete piece of work, and the artifacts are yours whether or not anything gets built. Deciding not to build is a legitimate outcome — far cheaper bought at sprint scale than discovered halfway through a project.
What about integrations, data migration, and the unknowns?
They are the point. Custom builds overrun on legacy data quality, undocumented spreadsheets, hardware on the floor, and permission rules nobody wrote down. The sprint goes looking for them while they are still cheap to find. Each unknown lands in the build definition with an owner and either an answer or a cost range.
What does an operational MVP cost?
It depends on the workflow, and the sprint turns that into a number. The build definition carries a budget band priced from the mapped workflow — roles, integrations, and regulated outputs included. Its assumptions are written down where you can challenge them. MVP pricing is scoped after the sprint, never quoted before it.
What if Aptixx is not the right team for the build?
You keep the artifacts, and they are built to be portable. The build definition is written for any competent builder: data model, roles and permissions, scope boundary, integration risks. An internal team, a contractor, or another firm can pick it up without starting over.
And if the mismatch is obvious earlier, you hear it on the fit call rather than after an invoice.
Next step
Bring one workflow. Leave with the scope and the number.
A 20-minute fit call: which sprint matches the risk, what it would cost, and a straight read either way.