Fixed-price AI builds for tech companies.
I build AI software, features and tools end-to-end. Defined scope, fixed price, shipped in 4–6 weeks.
Three things I do well.
Three engagement shapes. Pick the one that matches your problem; I’ll tell you honestly if neither fits.
One scoping call. Fixed price. Shipped.
No retainers, no scope creep, no endless meetings. The whole engagement, on one page.
One scoping call
We talk for an hour. I get specific about the problem, the constraints, and what success looks like — then we decide together whether I’m the right fit.
Fixed price quoted
A written proposal: scope, deliverables, timeline, price. No hourly billing, no surprises.
Locked scope
Scope is set before we start. Changes are negotiated explicitly, never absorbed silently.
Shipped in 4–6 weeks
Working software in your codebase. I hand it over, you accelerate.
I build things, not just decks.
The reason I take on so few engagements.
What I’m doing this month.
An honest log of what’s shipped, what’s building, and what I’m turning over. Updated when there’s something to say.
BirdieBlast 1.2.0 — Built out the ability to add alignment to the square golf launch monitor connector and kids games software I open sourced.
Plans v0.12 — Built a proposals and forms section for the travel agent tool.
Built tool for workers to log time and for office staff to get an operations overview of the business to make more informed decisions.
Tee Sheet alpha shipped to four golf friends. Still working through getting lat/long gps data and tees for courses around Australia.
Two slots remaining for July–September. After that I’m heads-down on Plans for the rest of the year.
Pitched for work on a golf swing analysis tool using AI and Machine Vision technology.
Started Whip prototyping. Group payments are gnarlier than I remembered — that’s the point.
Notes from the workbench.
Field notes from the practice. Build-in-public, mostly; theory occasionally.
Why I shifted from designing software to building it
The job most senior designers do in 2026 isn't designing software — it's coordinating the design of it. AI changed what I want to do for work. This is what re-energised me.
What I learned shipping four fixed-price AI builds in a year
A quiet pattern emerged: the projects that worked had one decision-maker, one outcome, and one deadline. Everything else is preamble.
On scope creep, and why I price by the project, not the hour
Hourly billing rewards me for being slow. Fixed price rewards both of us for being specific. I'll choose specific every time.
Chris Jack.
Design and AI leader, Melbourne. StackCraft is the practice; the products are the long game.
I’m Chris. StackCraft is a deliberately small practice — a small number of fixed-price AI builds a year for tech companies that want a senior practitioner end-to-end on their feature, MVP, or internal tool. After AI tools drastically changed how we build software, I shifted from leading design work and teams to actually shipping product code again — the work I love and missed.
Outside the practice I’m building multiple products under my own name: Plans (AI itinerary tool for travel agents), Tee Sheet (group golf trip organisation), and Whip (group event funding). The practice and the products exist because building things is what I love and want to be doing.
Twenty years, listed.
Senior product-design roles at established Australian businesses. Listed as career history — none of them are StackCraft clients.