Small technical team

One developer carries all technical responsibility

If my dev is out sick for two weeks, I don't even know what's happening in our own code.

One developer concentrates all technical responsibility at your company. Risk isn't theoretical: illness, departure, vacation, burnout. You don't need a second full-time hire, you need continuity, perspective, and peace of mind when production is down and your main developer doesn't answer.

One day a week structures deep work; in parallel, we frame day-to-day value, gradual backup, and dependable coverage (reachable on weekdays, urgency and weekends agreed up front).

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Peace of mind

Reachable and dependable, even at one day a week

In this situation, it's often not the most visible point, but the one that matters most to leadership: knowing who answers when production is down and your main developer is overloaded or unreachable. One day a week structures deep work; reachability and emergencies are framed separately from day one.

  1. Reachable throughout the week

    You don't wait for the scheduled day to talk: I stay reachable on Slack or the channel you already use. Questions, trade-offs, early signals: we keep the thread without turning every ping into a meeting.

  2. Emergency when your main developer doesn't answer

    If production breaks and your main developer can't take the call, I step in under an emergency frame we define together: scope, priority, response time, with a clear commitment on what triggers intervention.

  3. Weekends: agreed windows and limits

    Weekends aren't « off limits » by default: we can agree windows and limits (time bands, incident types, escalation). Everything is written up front so no one has to guess whether « this counts » as an emergency.

  4. What leadership gains

    Less mental load when all tech rests on one person: dependability, visibility, and backup without hiring a second full-time developer or micromanaging your lead.

The risk

Bus factor, in practice

Your main developer stays owner of the code and decisions. My role isn't to compete: it's to reduce single-point dependency, speed up reviews, and be the reliable backup when they're away, overloaded, or unreachable in an emergency, because we prepared together.

If you're preparing a first hire or product leadership instead, see Post-funding: before your first full-time developer and Need a PM or PO, without full-time.

What we set up

Day-to-day value and gradual backup

Learning the codebase

Light documentation, tour of critical areas, access and conventions, without reading every line. Goal: intervene on essentials within weeks, not duplicate your lead's head.

Value from the first weeks

Architecture reviews, unblocking, prioritization, targeted debt. Your dev gets a senior peer one day a week, not an auditor who shows up once a year.

Light backup, not a clone

We write what's covered in an intervention (fixes, deploys, level-2 support) and what triggers an emergency. You know what to expect: no black box when your developer is overloaded or away.

Reachable on weekdays, off mission day

Mission day structures deep build; in between, I stay reachable on Slack or your channel for day-to-day topics. No waiting until the next slot for a trade-off or early signal.

Vacation and agreed on-call

When your developer is on vacation, we activate a framework we've already tested: channels, incident priority, availability windows. On-call agreed in advance, not Monday-morning improvisation.

Rome

How I build

Technical foundations

Backup on your existing stack: we check early whether I'm aligned with your languages, frameworks, and tooling, then reviews, runbooks, and prioritization without disrupting your primary developer's day to day.

Repo, CI/CD, hosting, and integration mapArchitecture and code reviews on the current stackDocumentation and backup runbooksTests, regression, and targeted technical debtPairing and handover with your primary developerPHP · Laravel · REST APIsJavaScript · TypeScript · Node.jsReact · Next.js · VueWordPress · headless · Gutenberg/blocksSQL · Redis · queues · third-party webhooksCI/CD · Docker · monitoringJavaScript · PHP

Objections

Common questions

I frame it as backup for them: less solo pressure, faster reviews, someone who knows the context when they need time off. Leadership clarifies the lead keeps ownership; I'm not there to take their job.

Often yes, for gradual knowledge and a safety net, with clear scope. It's not a second full-time role: it's insurance and acceleration. Mission day structures deep build; in between, reachability and emergencies follow a frame defined up front, not waiting until the next slot.

We clarify that in the first conversation: languages, frameworks, hosting, debt level. My deepest hands-on experience is in JavaScript and PHP ecosystems (Laravel, React, Next.js, Vue, WordPress, Node). On another stack (Python, .NET, Go, etc.), I can often still bring architecture, reviews, prioritization, and emergency backup; hands-on build depends on context, and we decide without vague promises.

Repo and tool access per your policy, NDA if required. I don't publish your code: work stays in your systems. We define who sees what on the first conversation.

The agreed rhythm (e.g. one day a week) structures deep work, not whether you can reach me.

Ongoing, I make time to reply on Slack or your preferred channel. Out-of-scope emergencies go through the shared urgency frame we define together (scope, priority, response time).

Next step

Let's talk about your context

All technical responsibility on one developer? One call is enough to see if one day a week, with dependable emergency coverage, gives you margin without disrupting your team.

30 min · no commitment · video or phone

Book a call

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