Our process - How we work

The most important step in every project is discovering the need or problem we are solving. Our process begins with thoughtful conversations to understand not just what you need, but why you need it. We take time to collaborate with your team to discover how they work, what they have tried, and where they want to be. At the end of these conversations, there is a shared understanding of the direction we are taking the solution and a clear path to an immediate value proposition.

We are technology partners, not just developers. When you partner with us, you collaborate with the same engineers who design, plan, and execute your solution. We pair technical expertise with business understanding to ensure that you're not only getting well-crafted software solutions, but software that addresses your business's most critical needs. This approach allows us to move faster without sacrificing quality, so in the end, you have a great piece of software you can build on as your business needs evolve.

Every engagement starts with Pre-Project Consulting, a series of conversations that help discover needs and identify the project's Budget Cap and timeline. Once Pre-Project Consulting is complete, we begin iterations, a series of development cycles that include stakeholder feedback and focus on the value of what is being built rather than the scope of work. At the end, we deliver what we have done and work with you to determine the next steps, either continuing with additional iterations with new budget caps, project handoff to an internal development team, or support and maintenance, where we manage the software's health while you use it.

Our process requires it; we build the most valuable things first, but the rest of the software has to be layered on top. If we didn't pay attention to the code quality or its long-term maintainability, this would show very quickly, within the first two iterations or so. This shines even in our functional prototypes, where we build large portions of the UI to get feedback quickly; they look and feel like they work, but they lack real implementations, databases, validation, etc. However, they are almost plug-and-play: mock data turns into API calls, validation is wired up, and the same prototype you saw and loved, and how it works, becomes a reality in a short amount of time.

We have experience building solutions across a broad range of industries, including utilities, education, pharmaceuticals, sports medicine, and insurance. We're problem solvers who draw on context from similar challenges to deliver unique solutions to businesses. Before any code is written, you will be confident that we understand your specific needs and that the solution we build will be uniquely yours.

There are a couple of different ways we handle post-launch handoffs. It depends on your particular needs. If you have your own technology team, we can transfer all ownership to them, including documentation, code, deployments, and monitoring tools. If you don't have your own team, we can continue to manage your software in a support and maintenance capacity. No matter which way you choose, everything is ready for a seamless transition. Our goal is to avoid vendor lock-in.

We charge an hourly rate but use Budget Caps as do-not-exceed limits for a project. Budget Caps are not estimates of a set of features but rather recommendations for a particular goal, and they tend to encompass the smallest possible value we can deliver, so you begin getting a return on your investment quickly. Budget Caps can range anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000 and cover one to six months of development. Factors such as complexity, timeline, and overall scope affect these Budget Cap recommendations.

Our process focuses on mitigating risk and offering early off-ramps. You are deeply involved in our development process, and we provide tools to mitigate risks such as cost and scope. This process helps avoid a situation in which something that cannot provide value is taken too far at your expense.

You get all-in-one resources; we are engineers, project managers, testers, product designers, and leaders. This means each Slash Pine Tech team member is more efficient than other teams that may spread those skills out over more people. If you are simply looking for a developer, we may not be the right fit, but if you are looking for a partner to guide you through all aspects of your business's software needs, we are exactly the right team.