An experienced lead on every team
Every squad is led by an engineer who has shipped comparable products. Junior and mid-level developers work alongside them and are always paired for review.
How we work
A delivery process built to ship in weeks
Speed is not a promise we make, it is a process we run: a one-week discovery sprint, a fixed first scope, weekly demos and quality gates in the pipeline. Here is exactly what happens, week by week.
How does Sharp Minds deliver software so fast?
We remove the three things that slow projects down: unclear scope, long feedback loops and manual quality work. A one-week discovery sprint fixes scope and price. Weekly sprints with a Friday demo keep feedback loops to five days. Automated tests, code review and AI-assisted tooling make each sprint productive without cutting corners. The result is a production-ready first release in 6 to 10 weeks.
- 01Week 1
Discovery sprint
Workshops, user flows, technical scoping and a clickable prototype. Ends with a fixed first-release scope and a price.
- 02Week 2
Design & foundations
High-fidelity screens, architecture, repositories, environments and the CI/CD pipeline, so week 3 starts with shipping.
- 03Weeks 3-8
Weekly sprints
One feature set per week, demoed every Friday on a staging URL you can share. Automated tests run on every change.
- 04Weeks 9-10
Launch & iterate
Hardening, QA, production release, analytics and a prioritised backlog. Then keep the team or hand over cleanly.
Week by week
What happens in a typical 10-week engagement?
Who does what, and what you have in hand at the end of each phase.
| When | Focus | You | Sharp Minds | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Discovery and scoping | Attend 2-3 workshops, share goals and constraints | Map user flows, prototype, estimate, propose scope | Clickable prototype, fixed scope, price, timeline |
| Week 2 | Design and architecture | Review and approve screens | UI design, data model, environments, CI/CD, backlog | Approved designs, running pipeline, sprint plan |
| Weeks 3-8 | Build in weekly sprints | Join Friday demo, give feedback, test on staging | Ship one feature set per week, automated tests, code review | Working software on staging every Friday |
| Week 9 | Hardening and QA | User acceptance testing | Regression, performance and security passes, bug fixing | Release candidate |
| Week 10 | Launch | Approve go-live | Production deployment, monitoring, analytics, documentation | Live product and a version-two roadmap |
Principles
Six rules every Sharp Minds team follows
Fixed first scope
The discovery week ends with a scope, a price and a date. Scope can change, but always as a visible trade, never as drift.
A demo every Friday
Working software on a staging URL, every week, from week three. No slide decks about progress.
AI-assisted engineering
Code generation, test scaffolding and review assistants remove the repetitive work so engineering time goes to design decisions.
Automated quality gates
Automated tests, code review and preview environments run on every change, so speed never comes at the cost of stability.
Open reporting
Shared boards, open repositories, monthly velocity and budget reports. You always know where the project stands.
Engagement models
Which engagement model should you choose?
Choose a fixed-scope project for a defined product with a launch date, a dedicated team for ongoing development with stable capacity, and team extension to add engineers to your existing team. All three share the same weekly rhythm, tooling and quality gates.
Fixed-scope project
- Best for
- MVPs, redesigns and well-defined builds with a launch date
- Start
- Discovery week scheduled at sign-off, build starts the week after
- Pricing
- Fixed price per release, agreed after a discovery week
- Scaling
- Add releases or convert to a dedicated team
- Management
- Sharp Minds delivery lead runs sprints and demos
- Commitment
- Per release
Dedicated team
- Best for
- Ongoing product development that needs stable capacity
- Start
- Per role, confirmed in the proposal
- Pricing
- Transparent monthly rate per person
- Scaling
- Up or down with 30 days notice per role
- Management
- Your product owner sets priorities, our tech lead owns quality
- Commitment
- Monthly, minimum 3 months
Team extension
- Best for
- Adding one or more engineers to an existing in-house team
- Start
- Per role, confirmed in the proposal
- Pricing
- Monthly rate per person
- Scaling
- 30 days notice
- Management
- You manage the work directly, we handle HR and retention
- Commitment
- Monthly
Communication
How do we stay in sync across time zones?
Sharp Minds works in Central European Time, so teams in the EU and UK share a full working day with us and US East Coast teams share the afternoon. We use your tools and keep a predictable rhythm.
- Daily written stand-up in your Slack or Teams channel
- Friday demo on a staging URL, recorded for anyone who misses it
- Shared board in Jira, Linear or GitHub Projects
- Named delivery lead reachable during CET business hours
- Monthly report on velocity, quality and budget
- Quarterly on-site or remote roadmap review
Quality
How do we keep quality high at speed?
Code review on every change
Nothing merges without a second engineer reading it.
Automated tests in CI
Unit, API and end-to-end tests run on every pull request and block regressions.
Preview environments
Every feature gets its own URL so it can be reviewed before it reaches staging.
Performance and security budgets
Load time, accessibility and OWASP checks are part of the definition of done.
FAQ
Questions about speed and delivery
01How fast can Sharp Minds start a project?
A project starts with a one-week discovery sprint, scheduled as soon as the agreement is signed. Start dates for dedicated teams and team extension depend on the roles and seniority you need and are confirmed in the proposal. The first week is always a discovery or on-boarding sprint that ends with something concrete: a prototype, a fixed scope or a first shipped ticket.
02How do you build software faster without lowering quality?
Three things: team leads who have shipped similar products before, a fixed first-release scope that prevents drift, and AI-assisted tooling for code generation, testing and review that removes repetitive work. Quality is protected by automated tests in the pipeline, weekly demos and code review on every change.
03What does a typical project timeline look like?
Week 1: discovery and scoping with a prototype. Week 2: design and architecture, environments provisioned. Weeks 3 to 8: weekly sprints with a demo every Friday on a staging URL. Weeks 9 to 10: hardening, QA and production launch. Larger platforms follow the same rhythm over more releases.
04How do we stay informed about progress?
You get a live staging environment that is updated every sprint, a demo every Friday, a shared board in your tool of choice and a delivery lead you can message during CET working hours. Monthly reports summarise velocity, quality and budget.
Contact
Start with a one-week discovery sprint.
A fixed-price discovery week gives you a prototype, a scoped plan and a firm quote. If you continue with us, its cost is credited to the project.