The work we take on, and how engagements actually run.
POET runs across four capabilities — Build, Ship, Scale, Speak — and a small set of recurring engagement shapes. Below is what we typically build, how we engage, and the cadence a typical project runs at.
Ten recurring kinds of work.
Most engagements start with one of these. Many compose into multi-capability programmes once the first surface lands.
AI agents
Production agents that operate inside your stack — your CRM, ticketing system, data warehouse — with explicit policies, scoped permissions, and full audit logs.
Internal AI platforms
Custom RAG, retrieval, and knowledge platforms built on your private data. Replaces 8-tab juggling with one operating surface for your team.
Native iOS and Android
Real native builds in Swift and Kotlin (or Expo when cross-platform earns its tradeoff). End-to-end ownership through App Store and Play Store submission.
Web product platforms
Modern web on Next.js + Vercel. Type-safe end to end, server components, and the rigor you'd want for a customer-facing surface or an internal admin.
Shopify Plus storefronts
Theme architecture, checkout extensions, and customisation that holds up at peak. Internationalisation, multi-currency, and the integrations the finance team needs to close the books.
Headless commerce
Hydrogen and Oxygen builds when the shape of the business genuinely needs it. We pick the level of decoupling that earns its complexity, no more.
Subscription and lifecycle
Recharge, Skio, or custom subscription engines. Lifecycle marketing flows in Klaviyo. Attribution that maps cleanly to spend.
Editorial systems
Sanity or Contentful, modelled on how your team actually creates. Multi-channel publish targets so a single asset earns its full reach.
Social operations
Channel architecture across LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube. Creator and partnership workflows. Reporting your CFO can read.
Custom internal tools
Admin platforms, ops dashboards, workflow tools. Fast, opinionated, designed around your team's real workflow — not a generic SaaS persona.
Four engagement shapes.
We pick the engagement shape from the problem. Most operators land on one of these four, with the option to evolve toward an operating-partner retainer over time.
Greenfield build
8 – 16 weeksStart to ship. We own the spec, the architecture, the build, and the launch — including App Store submission, domain setup, and the first weeks of telemetry.
Replatform
10 – 20 weeksMigrate off legacy with a zero-downtime cutover plan. We've moved brands and operators from Magento, WooCommerce, bespoke CMS stacks, and homegrown internal tools.
Operating partner retainer
OngoingOngoing engineering and operational ownership across the systems we build (or systems your team already runs). Not hours-billed. Outcomes-billed.
Audit
2 – 4 weeksSecurity, performance, or architecture deep-dive on a system you operate today. We deliver a punch list ranked by impact, with recommended remediation paths.
The cadence of a typical engagement.
Four phases. Each ends with something tangible. No "we'll get back to you in 90 days." Discovery ends with a signed scope. Build ends with a production surface.
- [01]1 – 2 weeks
Discover
Stakeholder interviews, system access, baseline metrics. We end this phase with a one-page scope your operators can sign off on without ambiguity.
- [02]1 – 2 weeks
Design and scope
Architecture, key flows, and the prototypes that resolve the biggest questions. We lock the v1 surface area and write down what's deliberately out of scope.
- [03]4 – 12 weeks typical
Build and iterate
Weekly working sessions, demo-driven progress, and shippable increments. You see the system in production-shaped form long before launch.
- [04]Ongoing or handed off
Operate
We either keep operating on retainer or hand off a documented repo, infrastructure-as-code, and runbooks your team can inherit cleanly.
Where do you want to start?
Each capability has a deeper page on what it actually delivers, the typical stack, and the outcome we target.