Find out how before burning $200k*
The Board Game Test is a 90-minute workshop that reveals whether your team is ready to build—before you spend $200k finding out the hard way.
If you can sketch your process like a board game, you're ready. If not, you'll know exactly what's missing.
$ ./board_game_test --quick
> Can you draw the board? → Ready to build.
> Still hand-waving? → Not yet._
You've seen this movie before.
Vendors pitch AI solutions. They've never shipped production software, but the demos look incredible. Your team is excited. The board wants innovation. So you sign.
Six months later: a proof of concept that doesn't work with your actual data, an integration that's "almost ready," and a team burned out from chasing a moving target.
The project quietly gets shelved. The budget is gone. And everyone's a little more skeptical about the next initiative.
I've watched this happen with cloud, mobile, big data, and now AI. The technology changes every few years. The failure patterns don't.
Can your team turn this process into a board game?
Not a metaphor. Actually sketch it. Where does it start? What are the rules? How do you know you've won?
If they can draw the board, they're ready to build.
If it's all hand-waving and "it depends" and "the senior person just knows"—they're not ready. And no amount of AI is going to save them.
The Board Game Test takes 90 minutes.
It will save you six months of building the wrong thing.
$ check start_state
Where does the process begin?
$ check rules
What decisions get made? By whom?
$ check win_condition
How do you know you've succeeded?
$ check edge_cases
What happens when things go wrong?
→ If you can answer these, you can build it.
→ If you can't, you're not ready yet.
30 minutes. You tell me what you're planning. I'll tell you if I can help—or if you should talk to someone else.
The Board Game Test with your team. Then a full assessment of your data, your vendors, and the failure points nobody's talking about.
Proceed, modify, or stop. Not a 50-page report. A decision you can act on.
You've already signed the vendor contract
"It depends" is your company's motto
The people who do the work won't be in the room
You want validation, not truth
Your board game is Calvinball
If any of these sound familiar, I'm probably not the right fit. No hard feelings.
I've been shipping software since 1998. Systems that made companies millions. Projects that actually made it to production.
I've also watched technology investments fail for the same reasons, over and over. Bad requirements. Unrealistic timelines. Teams building what's exciting instead of what's needed.
Most consultants get paid whether your project works or not. I'd rather tell you you're not ready than watch you spend $200k on something that won't ship.
$ whoami
Scott Pierce
$ cat experience.txt
25+ years shipping software
10+ years in production AI
4 technology hype cycles survived
$ cat philosophy.txt
"The best AI strategy is often
knowing when NOT to use AI."
$_
The meeting where you explain why the AI initiative didn't ship—again
Your best engineer who's now skeptical every time you mention "transformation"
The competitor announcement you'll read 18 months from now
The quiet question in your own head: "Should I have known better?"
The budget is the obvious loss. It's not the biggest one.
No pitch. No pressure. Just a conversation about what you're planning and whether I can help.
If you're not ready yet, take the test first. It'll give us something concrete to discuss.
Or email me: [email protected]