The budget exists. A clear brief does not.
Stakeholder requests, agreements and constraints are scattered across calls, meetings and messages. I structure them into shared goals, contradictions, a single problem statement and decision criteria.
Research & discovery for technology-led companies and the teams that build or back them
Research for hard decisions about products and technology.
I investigate the technology, the market and how people actually do the work. You get the evidence, findings and viable options needed to make the decision. If the project moves forward, I define the scope and write the requirements your team or delivery partner can work from.
When this is useful
When a decision needs research, not another meeting.
Action is already urgent, but the team still does not share a clear view of the problem.
Everyone sees a problem. Nobody agrees what it is.
Interviews and process analysis expose the actual conflict before a team builds a compromise nobody needs.
The business problem is clear. The technical approach is not.
Architectures, platforms and implementation approaches are compared against the problem, existing stack, workflows and constraints. The result is a comparative technical assessment, a recommended approach and, where needed, system requirements or a technical specification for the build.
Every vendor sounds convincing.
Claims become measurable criteria, then get tested and compared against the project’s real needs and constraints. You get a side-by-side assessment of each option’s risks and limitations.
A new market looks promising. The evidence is fragmented.
Desk research and interviews with experts, customers and market participants come together in a market assessment covering the structure, opportunities and risks, with a clear conclusion: go, wait or no-go.
The work
Ways to work together.
Each engagement starts with the business question and ends with a decision, an assessment or working requirements. The methods fit the question, not the other way around.
Core offer1–2 weeks · fixed scope
Decision & Discovery Sprint
For an important initiative with an open question, unclear boundaries or requirements that have not yet been written down.
01
The decision question and the problem behind it
02
Options and the criteria for choosing between them
03
Evidence, findings and the reasoning behind the choice
04
Solution boundaries and prioritized requirements for the first version
05
Risks, assumptions and unresolved unknowns
06
Clear next steps for your team or vendor
Typical inputs: stakeholder interviews, workflow analysis, market and solution research, technical review and targeted experiments.
Ask about this format ↗Focused project
Technical & Market Assessment
Independent research into a technology, architecture, vendor, partner, investment opportunity or emerging market.
- Technology, architecture and implementation approaches
- Market, competitors and alternative approaches
- Technical-claim verification and practical constraints
- Evaluation criteria and vendor or partner comparison
- Findings, their limits and the next useful test
- System requirements or a technical specification, where needed
Ongoing or on demand
Fractional Discovery Lead
Senior research and decision support for a few days a month, or for a complex cross-functional question that does not fit an existing role.
- Continued stakeholder and customer interviews
- Requirements kept current
- Business, vendor and engineering alignment
- Executive decision support and special cross-functional projects
- White-label delivery for agencies
Who I work with
Technology-led companies and product teams
Founders and product, technology or operations leaders making a decision before committing budget to delivery.
Software & automation agencies
Client discovery, problem definition and a workable scope before timelines and pricing. White-label delivery is available.
Investors and strategy teams
Independent research into a technology, company, vendor or new market before a commitment.
Selected projects
What the work looked like in practice.
Client work is anonymised where required. These summaries show the starting question, the research and what changed. The profile includes work you can read in full.
Broadened an investment lens beyond one ecosystem.
- Context
- Deal sourcing was centered on affiliation with a single blockchain ecosystem.
- Work
- Mapped the payments and cross-border landscape: startup technologies and business models, the directions major players were taking and barriers to entry. Screened 100+ startups and conducted 30+ founder interviews.
- Result
- Helped the CEO shift sourcing from ecosystem affiliation to the problem solved and value created, including opportunities beyond crypto.
Turned a vague competition into measurable criteria.
- Context
- Several services that find the best route for a swap on TON had to be compared. The comparison was complicated by inconsistent terminology across teams and missing documentation for most of the services.
- Work
- Analysed the TON transaction model and the architectures behind the solutions, including how routes were built and where constraints emerged. Defined speed and cost metrics, designed the benchmark and ran comparative tests.
- Result
- The report was used by the jury to select the winners and decide which projects would receive ecosystem support.
Research for a regulated business launch.
- Context
- A team wanted to launch a cryptocurrency exchange but had not chosen a jurisdiction, product scope or operating model.
- Work
- Compared jurisdictions and licensing requirements, shaped the product and business plan, budget, timeline and local leadership search.
- Result
- A company was established, obtained a cryptocurrency license and launched the business.
How I work
Research built for your specific question.
I choose the depth and methods the decision requires. The result is concise, usable and clear about what is known, inferred and still unproven.
Frame the decision
What needs to be decided, who will decide it, by when, and what changes with the answer?
Investigate what matters
Technologies, implementation approaches, market, documents, interviews and the smallest useful experiment.
Turn the answer into action
A recommendation with alternatives, solution boundaries, requirements, risks and next actions.
Questions
How the work starts.
How do we start?
We start with a short call to define the decision, the stakes and what is already known. If the question is bounded, I propose a one-to-two-week Decision & Discovery Sprint with a clear outcome and fee. If another format fits better, I will say so.
We already have developers or an agency. Where do you fit?
Before implementation or alongside its earliest stage: clarifying the problem, interviewing stakeholders, comparing options and producing requirements. I can work directly with your delivery team or white-label inside an agency engagement.
Can you help us decide whether we need AI?
Yes. I start with the problem AI is expected to solve and compare it with simpler options. If AI is the right fit, I identify a useful pilot and define how success will be measured. If it is not, I recommend the simpler system.
What if the evidence does not support our preferred answer?
The conclusion will say so. I distinguish observed facts, supported inferences and unresolved unknowns, then name what evidence or experiment would change the decision.
Do you write code?
I have a software-engineering background, can read code and test technical claims, and build my own products. I use that depth to improve discovery and assessment work; I do not take staff-augmentation engineering roles.
Contact
Tell me what you’re trying to decide.
Three sentences are enough, but the full context is welcome: what you are trying to decide, what is unclear, what depends on the answer and your deadline. I reply within one working day.