How we work with you.
A Thinking Studios engagement is built with you. It runs on two mechanisms, one leading to the other:
- A commission buys the time to understand your problem and build your solution.
- A license keeps it yours as it compounds.
Here is what that looks like, from the first conversation to a partner you keep.
- Intake
We get to know you and your problem.
We start by admitting we are not experts in your problem — and that we want the time to become them. Before a commission or a price, we sit with you and ask two questions: What is your problem? and What is your goal? We take as long as a grounded, in-depth understanding requires. Occasionally it ends here; if we are not the right partner for the work, we will let you know immediately. Far more often, this is where our partnership begins.
What you leave with — Your problem articulated.
- Commission
We articulate the problem and put a solution in front of you.
The commission is the time bought to understand you deeply and to value the work honestly. We articulate your problem with precision, design a custom solution for it, and prove it on a pilot — your problem, not a demo. It is a one-time fee, paid in installments that track the work: the pilot, the full build, the handoff. A commission is not optional; it is the necessity that makes everything after it actually fit.
What you leave with — A working pilot, and proof the approach solves your problem.
- Build
We build your Umma, in full.
With the pilot accepted, we build the whole of it — a custom Umma operating system, designed and specified for your problem, your people, your circumstance. It is never a tool bolted onto someone else’s model. It is a cognitive system of your own: one that starts from your problem, grounds every claim in evidence, and will not hallucinate, forget, lie, or flatter. Much of the build is carried out by Umma itself — which is why it takes weeks rather than the months a custom build like this would. It is the first real glimpse of what our technology can do for you. When it is finished, we hand it off with deployment planned around your team, not ours.
What you leave with — A finished, custom Umma, handed off and ready.
- License
Umma stays yours, and it grows with you.
After a successful handoff, the license begins. Your Umma is yours to keep and to grow — per user, per year — expanding as more of your people make it theirs and as it learns the shape of your work. We price it to what it is worth to you: the time it saves, the money it recaptures, the return that was unreachable before. And if at any point you are unhappy with our work we can rebuild it, remold it, or you can return it to us full-stop.
What it becomes — A personalized operating system designed specifically to advance your work.
- Support
We stay with you.
A license is not a handover and a goodbye. We onboard and train your people, keep your Umma current and improving, and expand it with you as adoption deepens. When a new problem surfaces, it becomes the next commission and our relationship deepens and grows. Where it is warranted, a specialized-models program can take it further, always on data you have agreed we may use, governed by contract and consent. This is a working relationship, not a quid pro quo, and we are committed to it for as long as you are.
What you keep — A partner, collaborator, and confidant; not a vendor.
The commission earns your trust, the license strengthens it, and our ongoing guidance makes it permanent. Everything in between intake and support is the work. Centered on you, your problems, and your goals for as long as it takes for us to get it right.
When you’re ready, the first step is simply a conversation.