HOW WE WORK
Three rules.
Fixed price stays honest.
A signed done-test before any price, then three rules, each chosen because it makes the commercials honest and the work visible without inviting overhead.
00 / Step Zero
Before we price: the spec and the done-test.
A fixed price is only honest if “done” is defined before the price is. Step 0 is where that happens.
1
We write a short requirements document together
Plain language, a few pages: what the system must do, for whom, and the constraints that matter. Yours to keep whatever happens next.
2
We agree a signed done-test
An objective definition of done: demonstrable checks both sides sign before any build price exists. If a check can't be demonstrated, it isn't in the done-test.
3
Then we fix the price against it
The done-test is the contract. It is what the money-back guarantee pays out against: if the delivered system fails the signed checks, you don't pay.
The money-back pays out against one thing: the signed done-test, delivered in full. If a check misses at the demo, we fix it at our cost until it passes; the refund exists for the case where we genuinely cannot. And it is symmetric on purpose. You never pay for work that fails its signed checks; we never keep money for work that passed them; and a refund is a true unwind, that stage's fee back to you in full, its work and IP back to us. Prior accepted stages are untouched. Dates are commitments we plan around; anything waiting on your side pauses the clock, logged in the weekly report as it happens. A done-test written well enough to sign makes all of this theoretical. That is the bar we write them to.
Shaping that spec is a short paid engagement: the first step of the build, not free pre-sales. You end it holding the requirements document, the signed done-test, and a fixed price, whether or not we build together.
What you see
The demo. The deploy.
A working feature, shipped. The part of the work that's visible above the surface.
What holds it up
Everything under the waterline.
Tests, pipelines, security, documentation. Most of a week's work is invisible, and it's what keeps the visible part standing.
01 / The Three Rules
How an engagement actually runs.
No standup. No sprint review. No retro. No backlog grooming. If a ceremony isn't on this page, it doesn't exist on a Mangrove engagement by default.
01
PROCESS
Progress goes out weekly, in writing
Every Friday you receive a one-page report. Same format every week. No ceremony, no meeting, no slides.
IT COVERS
- →What landed this week: visible deliverables, demos, deploys
- →Under the waterline: invisible plumbing that moves the work forward, expressed in numbers where possible (coverage, accuracy, throughput, stages documented)
- →Plan vs actual: named workstreams against the stage plan
- →Risks and blockers
- →Decisions needed from you: specific, scoped, time-boxed
- →Next week: three bullets, no more
You read it in five minutes. You reply if you need to. You ignore it if you don't. The format is deliberately the same week to week so you can scan for change rather than re-read structure. In data-heavy or platform work, the majority of a week's effort is invisible. The 'under the waterline' section makes that work countable. Numbers move week to week even when nothing ships.
MAPS TO MANIFESTO VALUE: WORKING CODE OVER ARTEFACTS
02
CONTRACT
Change requests go in writing
If you want a change to scope, send it in writing. Email is fine. The request can be three sentences.
IN RETURN, YOU GET
- →A clear written response with revised scope, price, and timeline
- →An explicit decision: in-scope adjustment, paid change, or no
- →A short window (usually one to two days) to make the call
This is the only path that makes fixed-price commitments honest. Without a written change trail, scope drifts, price drifts, and the contract becomes T&M with extra steps. Writing forces the change to be specific enough to be priced, and gives both sides something to point to later. This isn't bureaucracy. What matters is that the request exists in writing.
MAPS TO MANIFESTO VALUE: ACCOUNTABILITY OVER ESTIMATION
03
ORGANISATION
Meetings are a paid choice
Meetings are fine when you need the back-and-forth. When you book one, it's metered transparently in quarter-day increments.
FOR EVERY MEETING WE RUN
- →AI transcription and summary, shared after
- →Decisions and actions captured in writing
- →Anything that affects scope follows rule two: a written change request
The reason meetings are metered is not that they are bad. It's that everything that mattered in the meeting ends up in writing afterwards anyway, which makes the meeting itself the more expensive path to the same outcome. Pricing it honestly lets you choose: pay for the conversation when you need it, default to writing when you don't. A side benefit: this kills the 'quick chat' pathology where scope grows in hallways. If a request didn't go through writing, it wasn't scoped, wasn't priced, and isn't committed.
MAPS TO MANIFESTO VALUE: FULL CONTEXT OVER COORDINATION
02 / What This Means For You
The shape of the engagement.
What you can expect, what we expect from you, when. Nothing else.
03 / Why This Works
Every rule buys back build time.
The rules also fix a coordination-cost problem most consultancies pretend doesn't exist. Every minute spent in standups, sprint planning, and synchronous status updates is a minute not building. Async, written, metered communication keeps the build window open.
04 / When This Doesn't Apply
Discovery work runs differently.
This model assumes a delivery engagement with knowable scope: a build, a migration, a system replacement, an integration. If the engagement is genuinely exploratory (pure research, prototyping a new business model, advisory-only), the same rules don't all fit. Discovery work runs on time and materials with a written summary at the end of each block.
If you're not sure which mode applies, that's the first thing we work out together, in writing.
Every stage of the build grows both ways. The canopy is what you see at the demo; the roots are the tests, docs and security work underneath it. The weekly report counts both.
Ready to see this in practice?
A signed done-test fixes the price and backs the guarantee. Weekly written progress from day one.