From idea to a prototype you can scale
An idea is worth most once someone can click on it. We take a concept from a conversation to a mock, from a mock to a working prototype, and from a prototype to a plan for scaling it, with the evidence to back a decision at every step.
This is the work our founder, Annette Andersen, leads personally. Every stage has a fixed written quote, agreed before any work starts.
What you get
A concept brief
The idea written down properly: who it is for, the problem it solves, what it has to do, what it must never do, and what success looks like. One document that a board, a funder or a builder can act on.
A clickable mock
Screens people can walk through on a phone or laptop before a line of product code is written. Mocks settle arguments that meetings never do, and they are the fastest way to find out what your users actually want.
A working prototype
Real software with real data, used by real people, built to prove the idea rather than to be the final product. Scoped so you learn the most for the least, and built accessible from the first screen.
A scale-ready handover
What was learned, what to keep, what to change, and a written plan for the production build: architecture, stages, costs and risks. Yours to take to us, to another team or to a funder.
Who this is for
- Founders and small businesses with a product idea who need something to show before they can raise money or win a first customer.
- NDIS and disability providers, aged care and community organisations with an idea for a tool their staff or participants would use.
- Grant and pilot programs that must show a working thing and evidence of use within the funding period.
- Organisations testing a concept before procurement, so the tender describes something that has already been tried.
- Teams with a prototype that needs a plan to become a product.
How it runs
1. Shape
A working session with the people closest to the problem. You leave with a concept brief and a quote for the next stage.
2. Mock
Screens and flows you can click through and put in front of users. We revise until the mock says what you mean.
3. Prototype
A working version in the hands of a small group of real users, with what they do and say fed back into the design.
4. Prove and plan
Evidence from use, a decision on what to build, and the written plan for scaling, priced stage by stage.
Every stage is planned in our Project Layer and every step an AI agent takes is signed off by a person and recorded through the Decision Bus, so you can see exactly what was done and why.
Concepts we have taken through this path
Our own products started the same way, as an idea, then a mock, then a prototype in real use:
- Disability Services Exchange (DSX): a provider discovery platform that began with what participants need to know about a provider.
- Savanax: a reasoning engine that maps disagreement between frameworks instead of averaging it away.
- Document Layer: a governed document store, proven as a working prototype on synthetic material.
- Ersher: a containerised version of any site from its address, now in development on the Decision Bus and Project Layer.
- PSight: biometric wellness from heart-rate variability, a prototype that shaped how we think about regulation and work.
See all of them under what we have built.
Why aXai
aXai is a disability-led AI, software and accessibility company. We build AI systems, software, and concepts and prototypes ready to scale, and we deliver them through AI-supported work: skilled people with disability in real, properly paid roles, working to clear quality standards, with AI removing the barriers and people keeping the accountability.
Every project runs on our own infrastructure, the Decision Bus and Project Layer, so each step is planned, signed off by a person and on the record. That is our operating advantage. Read how it works.
Concept work is where much of our AI-supported work begins: design, content, testing and review on a prototype that real people use. Read how it works.
Questions
How is a prototype different from the real product?
A prototype is built to answer questions: will people use this, what do they need most, what is hard? It uses real data with a small group of real users. The production build takes what the prototype proved and builds it to last, with the AI and software systems team.
Can we take the prototype and the plan to another team?
Yes. You own the brief, the mock, the prototype code and the scaling plan. They are written so another team can pick them up.
What does it cost?
Each stage has a fixed written quote agreed before it starts, beginning with the shaping session, so you decide stage by stage with the cost in front of you.
Can we start with just a mock?
Yes. Many concepts need only a brief and a clickable mock to win a decision or a first customer. The prototype comes when you are ready.
Bring us the idea
Describe it in a few lines, however rough. We will reply by email with what the first stage would look like and what it would cost. Prefer to talk first? Contact us.