Engagement M-01 / 03 / Fixed scope From $18k × 1–2 weeks

Discovery sprint.
One week, written.

A senior engineer and a designer in the room for one or two weeks. Output: a written architecture, a risk register, and a milestone plan you own forever — even if you never engage us further.

$18k
From
1–2w
Duration
2
Senior people
100%
Credited on continue

A written brief,
not a deck.

The output is short, dense, and reviewable. Your engineering leadership can disagree with specific lines.

A / Architecture

Written architecture

Eight pages on average. C4 diagrams. ADRs for major choices.

  • C4 L1–L3 diagrammed
  • Data model ERD
  • Non-functional targets named
  • Major-choice ADRs 5–10
  • Constraints & assumptions declared
B / Risk

Risk register

Top 10 risks, ranked, owned. The kind of paper that prevents quarterly fires.

  • Technical risks with mitigations
  • Vendor risks with alternatives
  • Org / process risks flagged honestly
  • Likelihood × impact scored
  • First-90-day risks highlighted
C / Plan

Milestone plan

Realistic phasing with a cost envelope, not a Gantt fantasy.

  • Phases 3–5 typical
  • Team shape per phase named
  • Cost envelope range
  • Critical path identified
  • Off-ramp markers declared
D / Reading

A shared vocabulary

Even if we don’t continue together, your team is now aligned on the system.

  • Glossary domain terms
  • Stakeholder map visualized
  • Decision log in writing
  • Open questions enumerated
  • Recommended reading 5–10 items

A brief you can defend
in front of your board.

The whole sprint exists to leave behind an artifact you’d be willing to publish internally — concrete, reviewable, honest.

01

Architecture brief

8–12 page PDF + Markdown. C4 diagrams, data model, key ADRs, non-functional targets, constraints.

02

Risk register

Top 10 risks, ranked by likelihood × impact, each with named owner and mitigation. Live spreadsheet you can update.

03

Milestone plan

3–5 phases with team shape, cost envelope, critical path, and explicit off-ramp markers per phase.

04

Stakeholder map

Who has skin in the game, what they’re optimizing for, and what tradeoffs each is uniquely qualified to make.

05

Recommendation memo

A short, opinionated take from us: should you build this, with whom, on what timeline. Plain language.

Five working days.

Most discovery sprints are one week. We extend to two when the system spans multiple existing surfaces or when discovery turns up significant unknowns.

01 / Day 1

Listen & map

Stakeholder interviews, existing-system tour if relevant, constraint capture. We start writing the brief on day one, not day five.

02 / Day 2–3

Diagram & option

Architecture options sketched in real-time. Two or three credible shapes considered before convergence. Risk register growing.

03 / Day 4

Plan & cost

Phasing, team shape per phase, cost envelope as a range with named drivers. Critical path identified.

04 / Day 5

Present & hand off

Final readout to your team with the written brief, risk register, plan, and recommendation memo in hand. Q&A. Done.

Things buyers ask
on the first call.

If something isn’t answered here, ask in your intro email — we keep this list short on purpose.

Is the fee really credited if we continue?+

Yes. If we move into a Build engagement within 90 days of the sprint, the full sprint fee gets credited against your first invoice. No fine print.

What if we don’t continue?+

You keep the brief, the risk register, the plan — all yours, all useful, regardless of who builds it. We’ve had clients use a KVB sprint to brief a different studio; that’s fine.

Can you do this remotely?+

Yes. We have a 100% remote version of the sprint that uses async interviews + 3 live workshops. Slightly longer (2 weeks) but functionally equivalent output.

Will you sign an NDA before this?+

Yes. Mutual NDA in the intro packet. Usually signed within two business days of inbound.

Got something hard
that needs to be real?

Send a paragraph about the problem. We’ll come back inside 48 hours with a written take — team shape, cost envelope, riskiest assumptions.

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