The first week
Every engagement opens with a 30-minute discovery call and a written one-page scope document. The scope names the outcome, the deliverables, the timeline, the decision-maker, and what we need from you. You sign it before any work starts. We sign it before any invoice goes out.
Repo access, environment credentials, and a shared channel — usually Slack or your team's equivalent — are set up on day one. By the end of week one, the schema (or the equivalent foundational decision for the engagement) is on the table, in writing, and we're both arguing about it.