How we work

From the first email to the handover. What OK Next commits to, what it charges for, what it will not take on, and what you walk away with if the relationship ends.

01 — THE ENGAGEMENT

  1. 01

    Scope call

    You send an email describing the problem. Then a 30 to 45 minute call to understand the process as it runs today — who touches it, where it breaks, what it costs in hours. No deck, no discovery package, no invoice for the conversation. If OK Next is not the right fit, you hear it on that call.

  2. 02

    Written proposal

    A document stating what will be built, what it explicitly does not include, the integrations required, the timeline, the fixed price or the rate and estimated range, and the running cost of the system once it is live. Nothing starts until you have read it and agreed to it in writing.

  3. 03

    Build in increments

    Short cycles against a staging environment you can open at any time. You see the software working as it is built, and you can redirect early while redirecting is cheap. Scope changes are quoted as they arise, so nothing is absorbed silently and argued about at the end.

  4. 04

    Launch

    Deployment to production — your cloud account or ours, your choice — and a run through the failure paths as well as the happy path. Your team gets a walkthrough. You get the source repository, the credentials, the environment configuration, and a written runbook covering what runs, when, and what to do when something fails.

  5. 05

    Operate or hand over

    OK Next maintains the system on a monthly agreement: monitoring, fixes, dependency and security updates, and a budget of change requests. Or your own team takes it, with the documentation to do so. Nothing built for you keeps running because of a license from us.

02 — WHAT YOU RECEIVE AT HANDOVER

The source repository, with its history
The infrastructure, in an account you control or one you can be moved into
Environment configuration and every credential
A written runbook: what runs, when, and what to do when it fails
A recorded walkthrough for whoever maintains it next
The intellectual property, assigned to you in the agreement

03 — WHAT COMES DOWN AFTERWARD

A stone arch is built on timber. The timber carries every stone until the keystone is in, and then it is eased down and taken away. A build has the same temporary parts — the staging environment, the access requested while the work runs — and none of it is in what you keep.

The centring is ours and temporary. The arch is yours and stands without it.

04 — POSITIONS WE HOLD

Custom code over no-code platformsZapier, Make and n8n are good for a five-step workflow with no branching. Past that, per-task pricing and opaque failures cost more than the code would have.
You own the stackCode, infrastructure and IP are yours, written into the agreement. Nothing depends on a license from us.
Boring infrastructurePostgres, Docker, a managed host or a server you control. New infrastructure is a risk you are paying for, not a feature.
Measure the process before automating itAn automated version of a broken process is a faster broken process.
One narrow system firstA first system that does one thing correctly beats a platform that does six things approximately.

05 — WHAT WE DECLINE

Not a fit

  • Projects where nobody can describe how the process works today
  • Work that has to start before it is scoped
  • Anything requiring us to hold customer payment credentials outside a defined scope
  • Anything we do not think we would ship well

06 — DATA, PRIVACY AND ACCESS

OK Next asks for the minimum access needed and no more, and prefers deploying to infrastructure you own so your data never leaves your accounts. Credentials go into a secrets manager, never into source code and never into a chat message.

OK Next is glad to sign an NDA and a data processing agreement — send yours, or use ours. Where GDPR applies, and it does whenever your customers or contacts are in the EU, it is built in from the start. Where AI models are involved, you are told exactly which provider processes what, and retention is configured accordingly.

07 — QUESTIONS

How do you price a project?

Most work is a fixed-scope project with a written statement of what will be built and a fixed price. Where scope genuinely cannot be pinned down in advance, OK Next works at a day rate against an agreed estimate range and reports against it weekly. After launch, operation is a monthly agreement. No long-term contract is required to start.

What if the scope changes?

Scope changes are quoted as they arise and agreed before they are built. They are not absorbed silently and argued about at the end. Because work runs in short cycles against a staging URL you can open at any time, most changes surface early, while changing direction is still cheap.

Do you sign NDAs?

Yes. OK Next signs NDAs and data processing agreements — send yours, or use ours. Access to your systems is requested at the minimum level needed to do the work, credentials go into a secrets manager, and where possible the system is deployed to infrastructure you own so your data never leaves your accounts.

Do you work in our timezone?

Delivery is remote, with overlap into US Eastern and Central business hours. Calls are held in your business hours. Written updates arrive on a fixed cadence agreed at scoping, and email is answered within one business day.

Tell us what needs building.

Describe the process, who does it now, and the systems it touches. OK Next reads it and replies within one business day.