Software you won’t have to apologize for.
Fieldwork is a nine-person product studio. Since 2018 we’ve designed, built, and kept the lights on for more than sixty products — and we’re still on a first-name basis with nearly all of them.
- 01
Senior only
The people in the first call are the people who write the code. No hand-offs to a bench.
- 02
Ships weekly
Something real in your hands by week two — and every week after that.
- 03
Stays maintainable
Docs, tests, and code your team can own when we’re gone. We plan for our own exit.
- Meridian Health
- Copperleaf
- Statline
- Harborline
- Otterpay
- Kestrel Bank
- Arden Supply Co.
01 Selected work
2018 — 2026
Meridian Health
Patient intake, rebuilt around clinicians
Paper forms and a fax machine, replaced with a guided flow that clinicians helped design.
Otterpay
An ops console for a team that outgrew spreadsheets
Payments operations with a real audit trail, safe permissions, and no more CSV gymnastics.
Harborline
Offline-first freight tracking, three countries
Drivers sync when they have signal; dispatch sees every shipment either way.
Statline
Analytics replatform, zero days of downtime
Ten years of data moved onto ClickHouse behind a dual-write proxy, one table at a time.
Full case studies live under NDA. Write to us and we’ll walk you through the one closest to your problem.
02 What we do
Fixed-scope or retained
- 01
Product discovery
A short, sharp engagement where we map the problem, pressure-test the idea, and leave you with a plan you could hand to any competent team. We hope you’ll hand it to us — but it’s a good plan either way.
- 02
Design & prototyping
Interfaces designed where they’ll actually live. You’re clicking a working thing by the end of the first week, not scrolling a slide deck.
- 03
Full-stack engineering
Next.js, Postgres, and infrastructure your team can operate after we’re gone. We pick tools for the decade, not the demo.
- 04
Modernization & rescues
Stuck migrations, bus-factor-of-one systems, the rewrite nobody finished — we’ve inherited all of it. Every step comes with a rollback plan.
03 The studio
Fieldwork started in 2018 when two engineers left a large consultancy with a theory: small teams of senior people, given real authority, beat anything else on speed, quality, and how the work feels from the inside.
Nine people and sixty-odd launches later, the theory is holding. There are no account managers here — you talk to the people building your software. We cap ourselves at three concurrent engagements, we bill time honestly, and we’d rather tell you “don’t build it” than invoice you for the wrong thing.
9 people · Portland, OR · est. 2018 · 3 engagements at a time
04 How it goes
A typical first 90 days
Week 0–2
Listen & map
Interviews with your team and your users. We come back with a written point of view, a scope, and a number — not a deck.
Week 2–6
Find the rhythm
Weekly releases start here. Small, shippable, and in front of real users while the stakes are still low.
Month 2+
Compound
The cadence does the heavy lifting. You always know what’s shipping Friday, and why.
When it’s time
Leave well
Docs, pairing, and a handoff your team can actually own — or we stay on retainer. Most clients do a bit of both.
05 What clients say
References on request
“They said “no” to half of what we asked for in the first month. It was infuriating — and then it was the reason the product worked.”
Maya Chen
VP Product, Otterpay
“Fieldwork left our codebase in better shape than they found it. Two years later, our engineers still thank them in standup.”
Daniel Okafor
CTO, Harborline
Taking on new work for November 2026
Have something in mind?
We reply within two business days. Usually faster.