Delivery
How embedded pods actually ship zero-to-one AI in 12–20 weeks — demos, scope, and operating cadence.
ICP job: Buy a pod that ships product, not slideware
A pattern for weekly demos that are evidence, not theatre. What we ship, what we don't, and what we say out loud.
Not a project manager, not a consultant. A senior engineer who lives in your Slack and writes the hardest code.
Planned and live topics for this pillar. Priority 1 ships first.
Query: Weekly demo cadence for AI product teams
Friday demos as evidence, not theatre — what ships, what doesn't, what you say out loud.
The two-week Discovery Sprint, unbundled
Query: AI product discovery sprint for startups
Inputs, outputs, kill criteria, and how it maps to a 12–20 week engagement.
Query: What is a forward deployed engineer?
Not PM, not classic consultant — senior eng in your Slack writing the hard code.
Zero to PMF in 12–20 weeks: the phase model
Query: How long to ship an AI MVP with an embedded team
Foundation → alpha → harden → PMF hunt — with eval and compliance gates.
Alpha to 10 trusted users
Query: How to run an AI product alpha with trusted users
Recruiting, feedback loops, and what blocks production hardening.
Fixed timelines for AI work that still discovers
Query: Fixed price AI product development risks
How Brandlabs keeps 12–20 weeks honest with kill switches and evidence demos.
Handover vs extending the embedded pod
Query: When to keep an embedded AI team after launch
Clean handover criteria vs continued velocity needs.
Negotiating scope when evals are in the contract
Query: Scoping AI consulting engagements with evaluation criteria
How defining eval targets changes change-orders and success criteria.
Who sits in an embedded AI pod
Query: Embedded AI engineering team structure
FDE + 2 seniors + designer + compliance-as-needed — roles and anti-patterns.
Operating inside the client’s Slack without chaos
Query: How forward deployed engineers work with client teams
Channels, decision logs, and async norms that keep trust high.
Rebuild components when the data demands it
Query: When to rewrite AI product components after launch
PMF hunt phase: courage to discard vs sunk-cost theater.
Canonical hub: https://brandlabs.app/blog/topics/forward-deployed-delivery