Our Process Sheridan Technologies

Our Process

Sheridan Technologies works as an on-demand engineering and product-development partner. Our process is designed to ensure alignment, reserve the right expertise at the right time, and move quickly once a project begins.

1a. Initial Conversation & Fit Assessment

We start with a focused discovery discussion to understand:

The problem you are trying to solve
Technical, schedule, and risk constraints
Whether the engagement is a good mutual fit

At this stage, we are validating that we can meaningfully help, not selling a predefined package.

1b. Discovery & Risk-Oriented Fit Assessment

Our initial conversations focus on more than requirements. We deliberately look for:

Technical and organizational risk signals
Schedule, dependency, and integration concerns
Past failure modes and hidden constraints

We are transparent about what we see, even when it’s uncomfortable. If we believe a project is likely to stall or fail without changes, we will say so early.

Goal: Establish clarity, alignment, and an honest go/no-go decision.

2a. Scoping & Proposal

If there is a strong fit, we define:

Project objectives and success criteria
Scope, requirements, assumptions, and constraints
Timeline, milestones, and commercial structure

You receive a clear proposal outlining deliverables, cadence, and expectations, eliminating ambiguity and downstream surprises.

2b. Collaborative Scoping & Assumption Alignment

Rather than presenting a fixed scope in isolation, we work collaboratively to define:

Clear objectives and success criteria
Assumptions and constraints
Known risks and unknowns
Clear decision owners and escalation paths to prevent stalled progress or late-stage surprises

This ensures both sides share the same mental model before work begins.

Goal: Eliminate ambiguity and prevent misalignment-driven rework.

3. Engagement Confirmation & Sign Off

To formally begin the engagement, we require an Engagement Retainer.

This retainer:

Demonstrates mutual commitment
Reserves dedicated engineering capacity in our schedule
Allows us to decline overlapping or conflicting work
Improves cash-flow timing at project start
Enables immediate mobilization without delays

The retainer is not an added cost. The non-refundable retainer is fully credited to early invoices and ensures we can prioritize your project with focus and accountability.

Goal: Create commitment, momentum, and predictable execution.

4. Mobilization & Onboarding

Once the engagement is confirmed, we immediately mobilize:

Allocate engineering resources
Set up tooling, access, and environments
Establish communication cadence and decision-making structure
Align on documentation and change control
Conduct deep technical and operational onboarding

From day one, clients have visibility into what we are doing, why we are doing it, and what risks we are actively tracking.

Goal: Build trust and momentum from day one.

5. Execution & Delivery with Proactive Risk Management

Work proceeds according to the agreed plan:

Milestone-based or time-and-materials delivery
Regular check-ins and progress updates
Adjustments as requirements or constraints evolve
Lightweight Agile planning, prioritization, and feedback loops
Adjustments as requirements or constraints evolve

Execution emphasizes speed, clarity, and technical rigor, supported by:

Continuous validation and early testing
Regular progress and risk reviews
Explicit surfacing of tradeoffs and emerging issues
Rapid course correction when conditions change

We do not wait for problems to surface. Our experience allows us to anticipate common failure modes and address them early, when changes are cheaper and easier.

Goal: Prevent surprises, reduce rework, and protect timelines.

6. Review, Transition, and Forward Planning

At key milestones or project completion, we:

Review outcomes against original objectives
Outline any residual risks, deferred decisions, or technical debt (if applicable)
Identify next steps, extensions, or follow-on work
Support handoff, scaling, or long-term engagement if needed

This ensures continuity and long-term value, not just task completion. Many clients continue with us in phased or ongoing engagements as needs evolve.

Goal: Leave the project stronger than we found it.

What This Means for Clients

No black boxes
No surprise scope creep
No late-stage “oh by the way” problems
Early, honest communication when something needs attention

Sheridan Technologies partners with clients through a transparent, collaborative process that mobilizes quickly, delivers focused execution with minimal friction, and proactively identifies and prevents issues before they impact cost, schedule, or outcomes.

Client Responsibilities:

Successful engagements are collaborative. Timely feedback, access, and decision-making are critical to maintaining momentum and predictability.

How We Build Predictability Into Every Engagement

Sheridan Technologies applies disciplined engineering practices that improve predictability and reduce downstream risk. Our approach emphasizes front-loaded diligence, design for downstream realities, and early validation, so risks are identified and mitigated before they become expensive or schedule-critical.

Engineering Discipline as a First-Class Priority

From the start of an engagement, we intentionally apply practices that improve predictability and reduce downstream surprises, including:

Design for Test (DFT) to ensure systems can be validated early and repeatedly
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) to avoid late-stage manufacturability and supply-chain issues
Simulation and modeling to evaluate behavior and edge cases before committing to hardware or code
Requirements and interface diligence to surface hidden dependencies and integration risks
Verification to ensure we are building the system right
Validation to ensure we are building the right system

These practices are applied before irreversible decisions are made, not after problems appear.

Due Diligence Before Irreversible Decisions

We deliberately invest time up front to:

Pressure-test assumptions
Evaluate technical and operational tradeoffs
Identify likely failure modes based on prior experience
Align designs with real-world constraints, not idealized ones

This allows us to predict outcomes with greater confidence and recommend course corrections early, when they are cheaper and easier to implement.

Integrated Into Our Engagement Process

These disciplines are embedded into how we work:

During discovery and scoping, we assess testability, manufacturability, and integration risk
During mobilization, we establish validation, simulation, and review workflows
During execution, we continuously validate designs against downstream realities
During reviews, we confirm assumptions still hold and adjust proactively

Why This Matters to Clients

This approach:

Reduces late-stage surprises
Improves schedule and cost predictability
Avoids rework and rushed fixes
Increases confidence in decision making

We prioritize engineering rigor that prevents problems, rather than reacting to them after the fact.

In Short

Sheridan Technologies emphasizes front-loaded engineering discipline, including design for test, design for manufacturing, simulation, and early verification planning. By doing the hard diligence up front, we are able to predict outcomes more accurately, surface risks early, and prevent downstream issues that commonly derail complex technical programs.