Frequently asked questions
What exactly do you do?
Two things, mainly: I black-box test your app by hand — finding, reproducing, and documenting bugs into dev-ready tickets — and I build automated Playwright test suites that run on a schedule to catch regressions before they reach users. Most engagements start with the hands-on testing and grow into automation once there's a codebase worth locking in.
How is this different from hiring a QA engineer full-time?
You get QA coverage without the overhead of a full-time hire — no salary, benefits, or ramp-up time. I work fractionally: a fixed-scope project or a monthly block of hours, scaled to what your team actually needs right now. It's built for teams that aren't ready to justify a dedicated QA headcount yet, not as a permanent substitute for one.
What does "AI-accelerated" mean — are you just using ChatGPT to write test cases?
No. I use Claude Code as a working tool to move faster — writing and expanding test coverage, and speeding up how quickly I can reproduce and document a bug — but the judgment is still mine: deciding what's actually worth testing, what risk matters most, and what a bug report needs to say to be useful to your dev team. AI speeds up the work; it doesn't replace the QA thinking behind it.
How much does it cost?
Published packages start at $750 for a Pre-Launch Bug Hunt, $2,500 for a Test Automation Setup, and $800/month (20 hrs) for a Fractional QA Retainer — all "starting at," scoped up depending on your app's size. See the Services page for full details. Flat projects bill 50% deposit, 50% on delivery.
How long does a project take?
A Bug Hunt typically runs 1–2 weeks. A Test Automation Setup runs 3–6 weeks depending on how much of your app needs coverage. A Web Development project runs 2–4 weeks. Retainers are ongoing, billed monthly. Exact timelines are scoped during our first conversation.
Do you work with teams that already have some testing in place?
Yes. If you already have manual QA or a partial test suite, I can audit what's there, fill the gaps, or migrate an existing Cypress/Selenium suite over to Playwright. You don't need to be starting from zero.
What tech stacks do you test?
Any web app reachable in a browser — the testing itself is black-box, so I don't need access to your codebase to find bugs. For automation, I build in Playwright (TypeScript), which covers modern web stacks regardless of what framework the app itself is built in.
Do you sign NDAs or handle confidential data carefully?
Yes. I'm happy to sign an NDA before any work starts, and I don't publish client names, real data, or unreleased features in any public material without explicit sign-off. See the Privacy Policy for how contact-form data is handled.
Are you available for ongoing work, or just one-off projects?
Both. A lot of clients start with a one-time Bug Hunt or Automation Setup to see how I work, then move to a monthly Retainer once there's an established suite worth maintaining. There's no obligation to commit to ongoing work up front.
How do we get started?
Send a message with what you're building and what you're worried might break. I'll follow up to scope the work and quote a fixed price before anything starts.