Product development from strategy to production
From the diagnostic to launch and what comes after it: scope, design and build with a team of senior engineers, then fixes, updates and new features decided by what your users actually do.
What does digital product development cover, from diagnostic to evolution?
Unlocking Tech is a Portuguese software and AI engineering company based in Lisbon that takes a digital product from the diagnostic to production with the same team: scope, design, development, launch and evolution. Most of our projects land between €15k and €50k, at a fixed price agreed before production code. You see working software in a demo every week, and the code, the repository and the IP are yours from day one.
The work doesn't stop at the first version. After launch, usage data and user feedback decide what comes next, and the same engineers carry on — on a retainer, phase by phase, or as a dedicated team when the roadmap is long — so the product's context isn't lost. Software that isn't maintained doesn't stand still: it degrades, because its dependencies and the APIs it talks to keep changing.
What happens in each phase
Diagnostic: a 30-minute call with an engineer and, where it's needed, a short discovery, ending with scope, price and timeline in writing. Scope and design: what goes in first and what waits, with flows designed alongside the people who build them. First version: it follows the method on our MVP page, with a demo every week. Launch: real users and usage data. Evolution and support: fixes, updates and new features, month to month.
How much it costs and how long it takes
The price is fixed before production code, and most of our projects land between €15k and €50k. A focused build, such as an internal tool, comes in below that; a product with several surfaces and integrations comes in above. The timeline follows the scope: the first version has its own on the MVP page, and larger products are split into milestones you sign off one by one.
Who owns the code and the design
The code, the repository and the IP are yours from day one, with documentation and a runbook another team can pick up. Design happens inside the build, with designers working alongside the engineers, not after it. No lock-in: if you later take the product in-house or move to another provider, there is nothing to unwind.
When we're not the right choice
A consumer product where the brand and the visual design are the main differentiator: a design studio is the better fit. Certified safety-critical systems, which need a specialist with that track record. And programmes with dozens of engineers running for years inside a large organisation, where a company of hundreds of people has the right scale. We'll say so on the first call.
We map your current workflow and identify the highest-impact build.
Architecture and scope, fixed before we write production code.
Senior engineers ship week by week, with a demo every Friday.
Measured against the metric we agreed on — and tuned until it holds.
Unlocking Tech, a Portuguese software and AI engineering company based in Lisbon, runs that path with one team: discovery and scoping, design, development, QA, launch, then maintenance and evolution on a retainer or as a dedicated team. Scope and price are fixed before production code, and most of our projects land between €15k and €50k. When you compare providers, check that the team running the diagnostic is the one that builds and maintains the product, and that the code is yours from day one.
Development only, yes: if design and product decisions already sit with you, we add senior engineers to your team through staff augmentation, or set up a dedicated development team on your roadmap. That's how it works at Right-On-Skill, an AI training company founded in Luxembourg: we placed a Tech Lead and a Frontend Developer in their team, architectural ownership stayed with the client, and the engagement has run past twelve months. Design we do inside the build rather than as a separate deliverable, with designers and engineers working together on the same flows. If what you need is mainly brand and visual design, a design studio is the better fit.
Usage data and user feedback decide what comes next, and the same engineers carry on so no context is lost: fixes, updates and new features on a retainer or phase by phase, or a dedicated team when the roadmap is long. For AI systems in production, our support and scale service adds monitoring, model upgrades and an SLA, month to month after stabilisation.
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Talk directly to a principal engineer.
No sales team.
No discovery workshops.
No procurement circus.
We scope, build and ship.
- Reply within one business day
- Engineer-led assessment
- Written proposal
- Lisbon · UK time zone
No commitment. Just an engineer.