1
Decide
Not everything should be an app. The most valuable answer is often "keep it small."
One front door intake & catalog
Every request and every app already running gets logged in one place you can search. The first question is always: does a version of this already exist?
Kills sprawl & duplication
Pick the size triage to a tier
Match the form to the need: a prompt, a shared team tool, a lightweight app, or a full production app. Most ideas never needed to be an app at all.
Kills over-building
Five questions risk screen
Who uses it, what data it touches, what happens if it's wrong, how long it will live, and who supports it. The answers set how much hardening it needs.
Sets the bar
2
Harden
A prototype is a draft, never trusted code. Secure the data first, then the rest.
Contain the data the first priority
Confidential information only ever goes to the firm's own approved AI, never a public one. People only see what they're entitled to, enforced beneath the app, not by asking the AI nicely.
Kills data leaks
Lock the doors auth & secrets
Real sign-on tied to the firm's identity, access limited to the right people, and passwords and keys kept in a vault, never pasted into the code or the browser.
Kills exposed secrets
Make it dependable productionize
A reusable safe starting point, separate test and live environments, one-click deploys with easy rollback, and answers that are grounded and checkable rather than made up.
Kills fragile releases
3
Own
No app ships without an owner. The goal is software that survives the person who built it.
Name the owner accountability
Before it goes live, four names: who owns it, who supports it, who approved the data access, and who acts when it breaks. If you can't fill these in, it isn't ready.
Kills orphaned apps
See the spend cost control
Each app's cost is tracked and attributable, with alerts on spikes. Duplicate and idle tools get flagged. You always know which app costs what, and why.
Kills runaway cost
Keep it healthy govern & prune
A light review rhythm, owners and support staff trained so nothing rests on one person, and the apps that stopped earning their place get retired or downgraded.
Kills key-person risk
Right-sized on purpose. On a lean team the answer is never a heavy process that slows the business. Every step here removes work: fewer apps to support, fewer things that can leak, fewer surprises. Scale and efficiency, without adding complexity.