Past the prototype
- the demo already convinced people
- the system is getting harder to reason about
- quality slips between releases
engagement / consulting
Hire Max Howell for senior AI consulting.
When the system has to work under load.
I help teams past the demo stage bring in senior AI consulting to fix architecture, add release discipline, and make production systems easier to trust and operate.
- → Architecture reset
- → Evals and release gates
- → Failure handling
- → Fractional leadership
Where I fit
This work is for teams that already know the opportunity is real. The problem is that the system is getting harder to trust.
Need senior judgment
- product and engineering need one operating model
- someone has to decide what is agentic and what is not
- the roadmap needs standards, not slogans
Want clear outcomes
- 90-day mandates
- specific ownership
- operating changes that stick
What changes
System shape
- clearer agent boundaries
- less config sprawl
- simpler decisions about tools and prompts
Release discipline
- evals that catch regressions
- release gates with real thresholds
- rollback rules before incidents force them
Working cadence
- sharper priorities
- less drift between teams
- faster decisions with fewer surprises
Tracks
Hands-on implementation
Build-side work for teams that need routing, evals, fallbacks, and release discipline in the product itself.
[ See implementation ]Fractional leadership
Senior coverage for teams that need standards, decisions, and operating pressure without a full-time executive hire.
[ See leadership model ]