How we work
The method we run, the commitments we make, and what we put at risk to earn a first piece of work.
Most companies open with proof. We open with terms you can hold us to.
OneCluster was founded in 2026. You will find no anonymised case studies here, no invented metrics and no testimonials from customers who do not exist - and no more mention of our age than that, because what should decide this is the people, the method and what we are willing to put at risk.
Every commitment below is written into the engagement agreement, not left as a sentiment on a website.
Ask for any of it in a first conversation. None of it is gated behind a signature.
Six stages, one team
How we intend to run every piece of work. Designed to leave capability behind rather than dependency.
Discover
The real problem behind the brief, surfaced with your people rather than around them.
1–2 weeksAdvise
Options, trade-offs and a direction worth betting on. Board-facing, delivery-informed.
2–4 weeksBuild
Squad stood up, architecture agreed, first slice live in production.
6–12 weeksIntegrate
Connect the new into everything that already exists. Data contracts first.
4–8 weeksEmbed
Coach your people into the roles that stay after we leave.
3–12 monthsScale
Replicate the pattern, step back, stay on call.
OngoingWhat we put at risk
Anyone can promise delivery. These are the four ways we make that promise cost us something if we get it wrong.
or freeIf the first sprint does not put working software in your environment, you do not pay for it
riskA share of our fee tied to milestones we agree with you up front
lock-inExit at any milestone, with the handover documentation already written
The diagnostic
Two weeks, no fee, no obligation. You keep the output whether or not you hire us - including if you use it to brief someone else.
Delivery assessment
Where your throughput actually goes: cycle time, handoffs, approval gates, rework.
Written reportArchitecture read
The constraints in your estate that will decide what is cheap and what is expensive to change.
Diagram + notesRisk register
What we think will go wrong in the next two quarters, ranked, with the cheapest mitigations.
Ranked listA costed first slice
The smallest piece worth shipping, scoped and priced - so you can compare us against anyone.
Scope + priceWe do this because it is the fastest way for you to judge our thinking, and because a customer who understands their own delivery problem is a better customer. The risk that you take the report elsewhere is ours to carry.
Work we would turn down
A young company is supposed to take anything. These are the pieces of work we would decline, and the reasoning is the same one we would apply to your project.
Bodies on a day rate
Staff augmentation with no outcome attached. We cannot be accountable for delivery we do not shape, and billing by the head rewards the wrong thing.
A decision already made
If the platform is chosen, the architecture fixed and the date immovable, you need implementers. Hiring us to validate it wastes your money.
Fixed scope, fixed date, fixed price
All three cannot hold in a complex estate. Anyone who agrees to all three is planning to argue with you later. We would rather argue now.
No access to users
If we cannot talk to the people who use the system, we are guessing. Expensive guessing is still guessing.
Rescue with no mandate to change
A programme in trouble usually needs different decisions, not more effort. Without authority to change how it works, we would just be adding cost.
Work we cannot staff senior
If we do not have the right people free, we will say so and point you elsewhere rather than backfill with juniors.
How we hold ourselves
Claim only what happened
No case studies we cannot substantiate, no borrowed metrics, no testimonials we did not receive. It is why this site looks the way it does.
Ship, then say
We would rather show a working slice in your environment than describe a plan for one.
Leave it stronger
Every piece of work carries a handover plan from the first week. Dependency on us is a design failure.
Seniority over scale
Small crews of people who have done the work before, not a pyramid staffed to a margin target.
Bad news early
If an approach is not working we say so while it is still cheap to change, in plain words.
Respect the constraint
Regulation, legacy and internal politics are the problem to design around, not distractions from it.
Start with the diagnostic
Forty-five minutes with a partner, then a two-week diagnostic at no cost that is yours to keep. Ask us for references before you commit to anything.