06 — Retail — 2023
Quartermast
for Cordell Street Co-op
A single-store co-op running on twenty years of accumulated spreadsheets. Quartermast reconciles receiving, shrink and shelf counts nightly and produces the one report the board actually reads.
- 4.7%
- 90 min
- 900
01
The cheapest thing that worked
The co-op’s technology budget was $18,000 for the year, total. That constraint was clarifying: no bespoke mobile app, no hardware, no subscription that would outlive our engagement. Receiving happens on the phone the receiver already owns, in a browser.
We deliberately shipped less than we scoped. The forecasting module was cut in week three and has not been missed.
02
Hand-off as a deliverable
Nobody at the co-op writes software. We spent the final two weeks writing runbooks and recording eleven short screen captures, and we still answer an email about once a quarter. That is the correct amount.
“We are not trying to be needed forever. We are trying to be worth the invoice.”
Ferrite
A control room for 340 megawatt-hours of battery, legible at 3 a.m.