Rescue · triage first
Rescue existing system
Stabilise what is live before anyone pitches a rewrite.
01
The situation
Inherited a mess, been burned by a vendor, or watched a build go sideways. Nobody trusts production — and every meeting is either denial or panic.
Access is unclear, backups are a hope, logs are sparse, and the person who knows the shortcuts is one resignation away from crisis.
Sales still promises; engineering still firefights. The gap between “it works on my machine” and “we can invoice” is where trust died.
02
What you get
Triage and stabilisation first: stop the bleeding, recover backups, name what is fixable versus sunk cost. Then a roadmap without drama or a rewrite sales pitch.
Hotfix path for what cannot wait; freeze rules for what must not break while we learn the system.
Honest line on fix vs rewrite — with effort bands, not vendor fantasy or denial.
03
Rescue phases
- Production triage — access, backups, logs, blast radius
- Incident playbook for the failures that already happened twice
- Hotfix path for what cannot wait this week
- Stabilisation slice — deploys, monitoring, on-call clarity
- Honest fix vs rewrite line — no denial, no shelfware fantasy
- Handover plan so the same fire does not restart next quarter
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How rescue runs
Stabilise first — panic builds are paused until production is safe.
Step 1 First 48 hours
Triage & access
Secure access, confirm backups, read logs — map what revenue and compliance paths cannot break this month.
Step 2 Stabilise
Stop the bleeding
Incidents contained, firefighting calmed, honest status for leadership — not denial or a stealth rewrite pitch.
Step 3 Honest line
Fixable vs sunk cost
Roadmap separates what to run, patch, or replace in phases — with effort bands, not vendor fantasy.
Step 4 Handover
Names on ownership
Hand to your team with runbooks and a plan — independence from the bad vendor relationship, not permanent dependency on us.
Sometimes stabilise and run. Sometimes controlled rewrite. We say which — out loud.
04
Signs this might be you
- Vendor vanished or handed over a repo nobody understands
- Production outage is “surprising” every month
- Nobody knows if backups restore until they need to
- CEO is asking “can we trust this?” and nobody has a straight answer
- New feature requests pile on a codebase everyone fears touching
- Legal or customer escalation needs audit trail you cannot produce
05
Triage before theatre
We secure access, confirm backups, read logs, and map what revenue and compliance paths cannot break this month.
Panic builds are paused; stabilisation wins first.
06
After the fire
Roadmap separates fixable debt from sunk cost — what to run, what to patch, what to replace in phases.
You get names on ownership inside your team, not permanent dependency on us.
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Good fit when
- Something is live and losing money or trust every week
- You need independence from a bad vendor relationship
- Leadership will fund stabilise-first, not rewrite-first
×
Probably not when
- Nothing is in production yet — that is build
- You want a rewrite quote without looking at what is live
- Access and truth are withheld — we cannot triage blind