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An order desk built twice, from both sides of the trade
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59 requirements reviewed, across 17 sections
Client projectCustom softwareAutomationMarketing and sales
A statement of work review that traced 63 requirements before the build
A US lead-generation marketplace, before its MVP build.
- the Google Places cost the first estimate allowed for
- 4.5 to 8 times
- atomic requirements traced from the statement of work
- 63
- architecture decisions recorded before any code
- 15
- risks re-rated, with 24 questions put to the client
- 11
Statement of work review at a glance
- Challenge
- A lead marketplace had a statement of work for an AI intake, listing collection and quote-call MVP, with contradictions nobody had found.
- Solution
- We traced 63 requirements, recorded 15 architecture decisions, re-added the hours and audited every acceptance criterion.
- Result
- A scope the client could build against, with the maps-data cost corrected to 4.5 to 8 times the first estimate.
The statement of work review challenge
The marketplace matches consumers with local shops that quote for the job. The MVP covered an AI avatar for intake, shop listings collected from Yelp, Google Maps and BBB, automated outbound quote calls, a phone menu and cloud functions between them. A statement of work that size hides contradictions, and each one found after the build starts becomes a change request.
What went into the statement of work review
Discovery and architectureAI and LLM toolsWorkflow automation
A revised MVP scope in January 2026: consumer app, AI calling, lead distribution, a shop portal and an admin area, with a written list of what was not included
Shop listings collected through Apify, and outbound quote calls through Retell AI, in the architecture
A Twilio phone menu, with AWS Lambda functions and SQS queues between the parts
A validation of the statement of work in May 2026: every claim checked by section, eight internal contradictions found, and the hours re-added, 344 against the 360 quoted
A bottom-up effort estimate, and all 19 acceptance criteria audited for whether they can be measured
Compliance gaps named before launch: call consent, TCPA and personal data
Statement of work review results
The client had a scope it could build against: eight contradictions named, the hours reconciled, 24 open questions put to it in one list, and the maps-data cost corrected before a line of code was written.
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