A situation I take on
The code works. Nobody knows why.
An undocumented codebase, read, written down, and understood by someone again.
The product runs and customers use it. That’s the trap: it worked well enough that nobody had to understand it, until the day someone did.
- The person who built it left years ago
- Documentation is a README from 2019
- Small changes take weeks, out of caution
- One deploy everyone is afraid of
- An error log nobody reads anymore
Reading other people’s code is the job. I get the project building, trace the flows your business actually runs on (sign-up, checkout, whatever earns the money), and write down what I find as I go. Understanding stays perishable if it lives in one head, so the deliverable is understanding you keep: documentation, a map of where the risk sits, and a person who can make changes with confidence again.
I’ve built inside big established codebases, including Twitch’s, where the conventions were someone else’s and understanding came before changing anything.
If what you need after that is someone who stays close to the code week after week, that’s fractional work, and the two connect naturally.
This is one shape of an existing product, picked up and moved forward. The full walkthrough, from first call to launch, is on the services page.
Also: iOS apps · Web apps · An existing product · Fractional work · All services
Let's build it
I'm taking on new projects. Tell me what you're working on and I'll tell you how I'd build it.
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