Engagement process

Simple, predictable, no surprises.

Every project follows the same five steps. You always know what’s happening, what comes next, and what it costs.

Discovery call (free, 30 min)

We talk about the problem, the data you have, who’ll use the thing, and what success looks like. If we’re not a fit, we’ll tell you and recommend someone who is.

Written proposal & SOW

Within a week, you get a one‑page Statement of Work: fixed scope, fixed price, milestones, timeline, and what we need from you.

Build & iterate

We start building and share a working preview every week. You give feedback; we adjust, until everything is perfect.

QA, deploy, handoff

Once you sign off on acceptance criteria, we ship to your environment (or ours) along with a cost estimate, hand over source code + docs + credentials, and run a live walkthrough with your team.

Optional hosting & retainer

Most clients stay on a monthly hosting plan ($25–$150/mo) to keep things running. Larger retainers are available for dedicated hours, feature work, or complex infrastructure. Optional — your data is always yours to take with you.

What you’ll need to bring

A short list. We help with everything else.

1 One or two sentences. “We have X data, and we need Y decision faster.” Don’t worry about technical specs — that’s our job.

2 A CSV, an Excel workbook, a database backup — whatever data you’ve got. Anonymized is fine for the discovery phase.

3 Someone with authority to approve scope and sign off on milestones.

FAQ

How long does a typical project take?

Dashboards: 2–6 weeks. ETL pipelines: 3–8 weeks. Desktop apps: 4–10 weeks. Forecasting add-ons: 2–5 weeks. We commit to a delivery date in the SOW.

Do you work on a retainer instead of fixed price?

We start every relationship with a fixed-price, fixed-scope project so you know what you’re getting. After delivery, an optional monthly retainer covers hosting, updates, and small feature requests.

What if I need changes mid-project?

Small changes inside the spirit of the SOW are absorbed. Anything that materially changes scope gets a short written change-order with a delta on price and timeline — signed by both sides before we proceed.

Who owns the data and app?

Your data and final deliverables are always yours. Desert Data Labs retains ownership of the underlying platform code and reusable components — this is what lets us keep improving the tools you rely on and build better versions for other clients over time. If you ever want to move on or self-host, we provide a full export of your database, your data, and your deployment configuration. No lock-in on your data, ever.

Where do you deploy?

Wherever fits: shinyapps.io, Posit Connect, Azure Static Web Apps, AWS, your on-prem servers, or as a packaged desktop .exe. We’ll recommend the cheapest option that meets your privacy and uptime needs.

Do you sign NDAs / BAAs?

Yes — happy to sign a mutual NDA before the discovery call. For HIPAA-adjacent work, we’ll discuss a BAA and any extra controls (encryption at rest, on-prem deployment, etc.).