A material study photographed in bright daylight. A monumental pleated wave of clear turquoise glass turns through a quarter circle, a polished pearl silver ribbon running along its crest, standing on a pale reflective floor that scatters light turquoise caustics. The left of the frame is empty pale mint.
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  3. Discovery call

The first step

One conversation,then a proposal in writing.

A discovery call is a conversation with the people who own the outcome. Afterwards we send a written proposal with a fixed scope, price and timeline, and you can sign it or walk away from it.

The call is free. Nothing is built, and nothing is billed, until you sign the proposal that follows it.

Book a discovery call Request a performance audit

Know what you are building? Book a discovery call. Not sure where the problem is? Request the audit.

HUREAL / Material studies

What the call is for

A project stops being a conversationand becomes a proposal.

Before the call

The project exists as a set of sentences that mean slightly different things to the four people who say them. Everybody agrees it is needed. Nobody can say what it costs, what it includes, or what has to be true before it can start.

Getting a number means describing it to somebody, and describing it to somebody means committing to a version of it. That is the part that stalls, and it stalls for months.

After the call

A written proposal arrives. It names the work, what the work excludes, the price, the dates, and what happens if you stop. Four people read the same sentences and find out whether they agreed.

You can sign it, take it to somebody else, or put it in a drawer. It is yours whether or not anything follows.

The call is not the sale. The proposal is what you take away.

That is why the call is spent listening rather than presenting. We ask about the outcome, the work as it runs today and the systems it touches, and the proposal is written from your answers. If you take it to a different company, it still did its job.

What the call covers

Three things,in this order.

The outcome comes first, because everything after it is measured against it. A call that starts with features ends with a wish list instead of a scope.

01

The outcome you are after

What has to be true afterwards that is not true now, said by the person who will be asked whether it worked. Our recommendation about whether to go ahead is measured against this answer too.

02

The work today, and the line

How the process runs now, who runs each part, and where a system could take over and where your people should stay in charge. Price, credit, judgement and the relationship usually stay on your side.

03

The systems and the numbers

What it has to connect to, which system owns which field, and what the current process costs, worked out with the figures you bring. If the arithmetic does not support the project, you will hear that from us.

What we do not do on the call: show a portfolio, present a deck, or name a price on the spot. The number is worked out afterwards and arrives in writing, because a figure said out loud is an estimate and a figure in a signed proposal is a commitment.

After the call

What arrivesin writing.

One proposal, with commitments in it rather than descriptions. Here is its table of contents, published, so there is no question about what you receive.

  • A fixed scope

    What is being built, in enough detail to be argued with, and what is not being built, listed beside it.

  • A fixed price

    Not an hourly rate and not a range. The number you sign is the number, and how we price explains what moves it and what does not.

  • A timeline

    Dates you can put in a plan, and the points at which working software is shown to you rather than reported on.

  • The line, drawn

    What a system takes over and what stays with your people, written down before anything is built.

  • The systems list

    Every connection the build needs, and which of them our engineers check before you sign rather than during the build.

  • Our recommendation, including against

    Where the right answer is smaller than what you asked about, the proposal says so and describes the smaller thing.

The proposal, drawn

your-company/discovery/proposal Ten sections

What is in the proposal

Published so a buyer knows what arrives. A designed representation of the document, not anybody's proposal.

  • 01

    What you are buying, on one page.

    Written first so the rest can be measured against it.

  • 02

    The work as it runs today, step by step.

  • 03

    The line: what the system takes over, what stays with your people.

  • 04

    Systems and connections, with what has been checked for each.

  • 05

    The arithmetic, with your numbers.

  • 06

    Scope: what is in it.

  • 07

    Scope: what is not in it.

    Its own section rather than a paragraph, because this is the one that keeps a fixed price fixed.

  • 08

    Price, and the payment schedule.

  • 09

    Timeline, reviews, and what happens if something is late.

  • 10

    Our recommendation, including where it is against going ahead.

    Kept in even when it costs us the build. It is the section that makes the other nine worth reading.

Ten sections, and the two that matter most are the ones a proposal usually leaves out: what the scope excludes, and what we would advise against. Both are in every proposal.

Who should join

When the call works,and when something else fits better.

Who should be on the call

  • Somebody who can say yes. The proposal that follows has a price on it, and it helps when the person who decides has heard the conversation behind it.
  • Somebody who knows where the data lives, by name rather than in detail. Which system holds the customer, which holds the price, which holds the history.
  • Two people is usually right. Whoever owns the outcome and whoever knows the systems are sometimes the same person. You do not need a technical lead.
  • A date or a cost to point at helps. A market you are entering, a system being switched off, a process whose cost somebody has already counted.

Something else may fit better if

  • You want the evidence before the decision. The performance audit produces a document about your business rather than about a project.
  • The requirement is that there should be some AI. There is no workflow in that sentence to scope yet. Start by naming the process that costs the most.
  • The work is one stable rule with no judgement in it. That is usually configured rather than built, it costs less than anything we would scope, and we will say so on the call.

Where the answer is the smaller thing, we will say so, and we will build the smaller thing.

Book it

Six fields,and a person reads it.

The call runs over video or in person, wherever the people who own the outcome are. We reply to arrange a time that suits them.

What this form does. It reaches HUREAL and nothing else. We use what you write here to prepare your discovery call, and to reply to you about it. We do not sell it, we do not share it with anyone outside HUREAL, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. How we handle personal information.

If you already know which systems are involved, name them here. It lets the call start with the real question.

Not sure yet? Request the audit instead

What happens next. You get an immediate acknowledgement that references what you actually asked rather than a generic receipt, and a personal reply from the person who would be on the call. Nothing is added to a sales sequence, and nothing is sent to your customers from anything we build until you have signed it off.

Questions about the call

Questions peopleask before booking.

  • What does the call cost?

    Nothing. The discovery call is free. The price you will see is the price of the build, fixed in the written proposal that follows, and how we price explains how that number is set.

  • Is this a sales call?

    It is a conversation about your project, and what follows it is a proposal that includes our recommendation even when that recommendation is against going ahead. You can take the proposal to another company and it will work there, because it describes the job rather than describing us.

  • Who should join?

    Whoever owns the outcome, and whoever knows where the data lives. Those are sometimes the same person and usually two. You do not need a technical lead on the call.

  • How soon does the proposal arrive?

    We agree that with you at the end of the call. Where something has to be checked first, such as a system we need access to, we tell you what it is and why.

  • Can we meet in person?

    Yes, where that is practical. Most calls run over video, and the proposal is the same either way. What matters is who is on the call, not where it happens.

  • What if we do not go ahead afterwards?

    You keep the proposal. It is written to be useful on its own: the process described, the line drawn, the systems listed, the arithmetic run with your numbers. If you take it somewhere else, it does the job there.

  • Do you sign a confidentiality agreement?

    Yes. Send yours with the booking and it is reviewed before the call rather than on the day. Where the work touches personal or health information, what the build will hold and where is written into the proposal rather than left to the contract.

  • We already have an agency. Is this still worth it?

    Often, and the proposal is the reason: a scope with a fixed price and a written exclusion list is a useful thing to hold whoever builds it. HUREAL works alongside in house and external teams, and who owns what is written down so nothing sits in the gap.

Two doors

Book the call,or start with the evidence.

Book a discovery call

For when you know you are building something, or you know which process is costing you. One conversation, then a written proposal you can sign or walk away from.

Book a discovery call

Request a performance audit

For when you want the evidence before the decision. Twelve dimensions run against what you have and against two comparable companies in your market.

Request a performance audit

Know what you are building? Book a discovery call. Not sure where the problem is? Request the audit. If neither is right for you, we will say so, and tell you what is.

Want to see how we think first? The method is published phase by phase, including the gate at the end of each one and the fourteen checks a build passes before it goes live.

Read the method

What every HUREAL engagement commits to, in writing

  • A fixed scope, price and timeline, agreed before any code is written.
  • A working build, reviewed at every phase, running in your own accounts.
  • Full ownership of the code, the content and the data, with admin access from day one.
  • A named contact who is accountable for the work.
A material study photographed in bright daylight. A tall fan of clear turquoise glass fins rises on the right of the frame with a polished pearl silver ribbon curving through it, standing in a shallow film of still water. The left of the frame is empty pale mint.

One call. One proposal. Yours either way.

HUREAL / Material studies