The most expensive technical mistakes are not made in code. They are made in a meeting, by capable people, with nobody present whose job is to ask the awkward question.
A standing arrangement puts that person within reach. Not to run your technology, and not to approve what has already been decided, but to be available in the hour before a commitment is made, when the decision is still cheap.
What a retainer covers
- Counsel before decisions. A conversation before you commit, rather than a review afterwards.
- Proposals and quotes. Reading what a vendor or an agency has put in front of you, and telling you what it actually says.
- Hiring. Assessing senior technical candidates, and deciding what a first engineering hire should be asked to do.
- Diligence support. Standing behind your technology story when an investor or an acquirer tests it.
- Direction. Whether the present approach still serves the business, reviewed on a sensible cadence.
The cheapest engineering is the work you are talked out of.
How it works
An agreed number of hours each month, a standing call, and the understanding that you may pick up the telephone in between. The terms are written down: what is included, what is not, and what a month costs. No hourly billing against a meter, and no open-ended commitment.
The arrangement is reviewed at intervals, and it ends the moment it stops earning its place.