How we decide what to build, and how we build it.
Six habits, written down so we can be held to them.
Start with the cheapest phone
If it doesn't work on a basic handset with no data, it isn't done. Smartphone features come after.
Go where the problem is
We spend time at site gates, markets and stage offices before we write specs. Field notes beat assumptions.
Two people on every decision
Every engineering call, deal and contract has a second person on it. Nothing gets built or signed solo.
Write it down
Decisions live in shared docs, not in someone's head or a DM. Anyone joining later can see why.
Earn trust before we charge
People at the bottom of the market have been burned before. Our products prove their value first, and the people we serve pay nothing where we can manage it.
Depth before breadth
One county working well beats five counties working badly. We expand when the first place is solid.
Ground truth.
Two weeks with your users and your data. We tell you if we think the project should change or stop.
Prototype on real devices.
A working USSD or SMS flow on actual handsets, tested with the people who'll use it.
Build.
Short cycles, a shared backlog, a working release every two weeks.
Run and hand over.
We run it with you until it's stable, then hand over with documentation, or keep running it if that's the deal.
Boring, proven tools that work on Kenyan networks and that a small team can run.
- USSD and SMS
- Africa's Talking, reaching Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom subscribers
- Back end
- Node.js and TypeScript (Express), with Prisma
- Data
- PostgreSQL, with Redis for USSD sessions and caching
- Web
- React and TypeScript for portals; Next.js for this site
- Standards
- Kenya Data Protection Act 2019 compliance; code reviewed by a second engineer