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Trail Mix Digital

You know something has to change. You're not sure what to build.

Discovery is a fixed-price phase that maps how your business actually runs and ends with a written plan and a fixed price for the build. Everything it produces is yours to keep.

When discovery is the right first step

Most expensive software mistakes are made before any code is written, by building the wrong thing. Discovery is how you avoid that.

  • You know something has to change, not what to fix first

    Everything feels slow, but it's hard to see which part is costing the most.

  • The know-how lives in people's heads

    The process works because one or two people remember how. Nobody has written it down.

  • You've had a quote and couldn't judge it

    A software or automation quote arrived, and there was no way to tell if it was the right thing at the right price.

  • You want AI in the business, not as a side project

    You've seen what it can do. You want to know where it would actually save time in your operation, and where it wouldn't.

Two ways to start

Both fixed price, both yours to keep. Which one fits depends on whether you're fixing how the business runs or building something new.

About two weeks

Operations diagnostic

For a business running on spreadsheets, inboxes and memory. The work gets done, but it depends on one file and the people who understand it.

What you get

  • A process map of how work actually flows today, including the steps that live in text messages.
  • The two or three places where automation or AI pays back fastest, and the ones that aren't worth it yet.
  • A tool shortlist with real costs, and a plain recommendation on what to build and what to buy.
  • A fixed build quote for the first piece of work.
  • A handover plan for whoever will run it.
Four to eight weeks

Product discovery

For something new: a marketplace, a platform, a customer-facing product. Clear enough to be worth money, not yet clear enough to build.

What you get

  • A full specification: every feature, screen and rule, in plain language.
  • Findings from short interviews with the people who will sell, buy or operate.
  • Clickable mockups of the key screens, to react to before anything is built.
  • The money and legal position, with draft policy text for your lawyer and accountant.
  • Confirmed monthly running costs and a launch readiness plan.
  • A phased build plan with a fixed price for phase one.

If a smaller piece of work answers the question, that's what I'll propose.

How the weeks run

  • A weekly show and tell

    One 45 to 60 minute call. I show real output, you react, and we adjust while it's still cheap to adjust.

  • Every decision logged

    Decisions, feedback and open questions are dated in a shared log that carries into the build.

  • Everything handed over

    At the end you get it all, whether or not we continue. It's written so another builder could pick it up.

How every engagement works

  1. A fixed price, agreed in writing before any work starts.
  2. Everything discovery produces is yours to keep, whether or not we continue.
  3. You own the code, the data and the accounts it runs in.
  4. The care plan is optional, and if a smaller piece of work answers the question, that's what I'll propose.

Questions people ask

Start with a call

Twenty to thirty minutes on what's slow or scattered, what you'd want it to look like, and whether discovery is the right first step. If a smaller piece of work answers the question, I'll say so.

Book a call