Studio Process

We work in four-week cycles. We ship marketing and product updates continuously with a punctuation mark at the end of each cycle to tie things up. In this article we describe our technology, process, and how we work with partners.

OUR DOMAINS AND LANGUAGES

We organize work into domains. By working in distinct domains we compound our investment in app and api components through reuse. Within a chosen domain, we create task specific languages to solve problems within that domain. Languages abstract the domain semantics away from the underlaying code allowing non-technical team members to participate deeply in the development process.

OUR TOOLS AND TECH STACK

Our products are built with Graffiticode — an open source framework for creating and deploying full-stack micro-SaaS apps.

Graffiticode uses React on the frontend and NodeJS on the backend. It uses a language oriented approach to software development, which means there is a task specific language in the middle between the client and server. This language in the middle makes the development possible for domain expert and generative AI programmers.

OUR PROCESS

We work in four-week cycles using a process loosely based on Shape Up by 37Signals.

Each cycle is an exercise in refining our message and product in a direction mapped out before the beginning of the cycle. These maps my be a set of success criteria along with a hypothesis on how to satisfy those criteria.

As the cost of development is moving toward zero witht he use of generative AI, the maps at the start of each cycle have evolved from being more perscriptive to being more descriptive. We are now able to explore the solution space quickly with multiple iterations whereas before the use of AI we had to take our best shot at a solution.

What makes this process effective is the imposition of three hard constraints: fixed cost (four weeks), variable scope (directional map), and measurable success criteria. Our ultimate objective is to create SLC (simple, lovable & complete) outcomes.

OUR PARTNERSHIPS

We work with founders and venture studios to co-develop µSaaS businesses. We normally take a fee and a small amount of equity in exchange for helping our partners create their businesses. Here is a sample joint venture Agreement.