Diagnosis & direction
Initial discovery, the architecture read, the critical tradeoffs, the roadmap, and the final recommendation — the parts that require senior judgment.
For organizations
Match the problem to the engagement before you book a call.
Five starting points, one honest boundary: what Chris owns, what he stays involved in, and what stays with your team. If none of this is obvious yet, the strategy call sorts it out faster than reading this page.
Start here
If you need this, start there.
Each row below maps a situation to the right entry point. You can always confirm the fit on a strategy call before committing to anything.
01
Diagnosis needed
Start with the audit
Pipelines fail, reports disagree, ownership is unclear, or the current platform is exposing the business to operational, security, or compliance risk. You need to know what's actually broken before deciding what to do about it. See it in action: the SOX audit-governance case study.
02Target-state plan needed
Start with the blueprint
The platform decision isn't settled, a migration is approaching, or the architecture needs a clear design before implementation starts. Deciding between Databricks and Fabric fits here.
03Ongoing coverage needed
Start with the retainer
You already have a team and a platform. What's missing is a steady senior read on design reviews, tradeoffs, and escalations — not a one-time deliverable. See it in action: the pipeline-reliability case study.
04Deep platform review needed
Choose the right Databricks review depth
Start with the $8,000 cost and governance diagnostic for a narrow concern, move to the $12,500-$25,000 Lakehouse / Unity Catalog Audit when scale needs a fuller read, or use the $25,000-$45,000 Readiness Review for a consequential platform decision. Synapse-to-Fabric Migration reviews also live here.
05Not sure yet
Book the strategy call instead
If the problem is still fuzzy, don't try to self-diagnose the engagement type first. A 30-minute conversation sorts that out faster than reading pricing pages.
Want the evidence first? Read the case studies →
Boundary clarity
Founder-led doesn’t mean Chris does every task.
It means the core judgment doesn’t disappear after the sale, and it doesn’t mean your team loses control of its own platform.
Decisions & communication
Executive updates, design review, governance direction, and quality oversight within the agreed scope — not unlimited availability.
Capability & control
Internal teams keep operational ownership, execution, and day-to-day running of the platform. Nothing here transfers control away from your team.
What this is not
The boundaries that keep each offer honest.
The audit is not an implementation project
The output is diagnosis, risk visibility, and a prioritized remediation roadmap. Implementation is scoped separately, once you know what needs to happen.
The blueprint is not a build engagement
The output is the target architecture and migration plan — not the delivery itself. A blueprint tells you what to build and in what order.
The retainer is not unlimited coverage
It's a defined level of fractional architecture support — with advisory access, reviews, escalation help, and hands-on involvement set by scope, not open-ended operational ownership or on-call coverage.
Platform reviews are not a general strategy engagement
They're focused, priced-to-complexity assessments for a specific platform transition — not a broad enterprise-wide review.
Still deciding?
Bring the decision, not a fully-scoped ask.
The 30-Minute Strategy and Architecture Fit Call exists for exactly this — sorting out which engagement fits before either of us commits to one.
Book a strategy call ↗