01
Development dragging on
Runway spent without working software in users' hands.
Months lost to an over-engineered MVP that hasn't shipped
Startup MVP build and launch
Ship the smallest product that proves your core workflow: scoped with you up front, built on a boring, scalable stack, and handed over with documentation and tests.
Symptoms
Signs your platform has this problem
If several of these sound familiar, the plan below is where we would start.
02
Over-engineering before product-market fit
Microservices and custom auth when a modular monolith would do.
03
Hard-to-maintain deliverables
Codebases handed over without documentation or tests.
Remediation plan
How we fix it, step by step
Each phase ends with a measurement, so you can see what changed before the next one starts.
01
Scoping and architecture
MoSCoW prioritization around the one core workflow, plus the data model and API contracts.
02
Foundation
Next.js, PostgreSQL or Supabase, authentication and design tokens.
03
Core feature sprints
The primary user workflow, business logic, integrations and Stripe billing.
04
Testing and launch
Playwright end-to-end tests, monitoring, and launch to real users.
Technical checklist
Remediation checklist
What we check before a change goes to production:
- Prioritize the backlog with MoSCoW around the core value loop
- Build on a scalable foundation: Next.js, PostgreSQL, auth and Stripe billing
- Set up CI/CD with preview environments
- Hand over documentation and the codebase to your team
What we measure
We take a baseline first and report the same measurements after each change, from your own monitoring — evidence, not promised results.
- Time to launch
- Agreed in the proposal and tracked against the plan
- Scope
- Must-have items shipped vs deferred, reviewed each sprint
- Activation
- Share of new users who complete the core workflow after launch
Related service
Custom software
Custom software for Indian SMEs and startups, built around your workflow with an agreed scope, review milestones, clear ownership and documented handover.
Explore Custom softwareQuestions
Questions about this remediation
The agreed core workflow end to end: frontend, API, database, authentication, billing if you charge from day one, transactional email, automated tests and hosting. Scope and timeline are written into the proposal after a scoping session.
You do. Under our terms, the custom code, documentation and designs we produce transfer to you on payment of the invoices that cover them, and pre-existing tools we bring are licensed to you perpetually.
Related playbooks
Other engineering problem playbooks
SaaS multi-tenant architecture with Row Level Security
Move to a pooled PostgreSQL design where Row Level Security enforces tenant isolation in the database, cutting per-tenant overhead and the risk of a missed WHERE clause.
Double-entry ledger and event sourcing architecture
Build an append-only, double-entry ledger with idempotent writes and ordered events, so every balance can be explained and rebuilt from its history.
Datadog bill reduction and ingestion governance
Find what drives your Datadog bill, then cut it at the source — high-cardinality tags, noisy logs and over-sampled traces — while keeping the signals on-call depends on.
API rate limiting and scraping protection at the edge
Protect your APIs from scraping, brute-force bots and floods with WAF rules at the edge and per-key rate limits in Redis.
Want an engineer to look at this with you?
Send us the symptoms and any metrics you have. We'll reply within one business day, set up a call and agree what to measure before anything changes.