Hey!

Chris here. Welcome to Blueprint—the newsletter to help you build a winning engineering team.

When do you know it's time to stop figuring out AI on your own and bring in outside help? I get asked this constantly—it comes with running a company that does exactly this for a living.

The answer comes down to 2 questions:

1. What does this unlock for your business?

2. How much time do you have?

Everything else flows from here, so being honest with yourself about both is critical.

Here's how I help prospective clients think through them 👇

📒 DEEP DIVE

When to Hire an AI Expert

The decision comes down to upside, time, and whether you actually want to learn the ecosystem yourself.

If You Love Learning AI, Don't Hire Anyone

If you love AI—learning it, tinkering with it, fiddling with every knob you can find—just do it yourself.

Seriously, don't call us or anyone else.

You'll get more out of learning the full ecosystem on your own than you'd get from any outside engagement, especially given where things are headed. The people willing to dig in and push through the complexity will come out the other side with a serious edge.

So if that's you, keep going.

If You Don't Have the Time

Here's where it gets more nuanced.

If AI unlocks an enormous amount of value for your business and you're not already the expert, the question is: do you have the time to become one?

A lot of founders running businesses simply don't. If that's the case, having someone come in who knows what they're doing—someone who can lay out the ecosystem and help you understand what's possible—is probably the right call.

If It All Sounds Like Noise

There's a 3rd camp.

A lot of people are hearing stories about what AI can supposedly do and don't know what to believe. The whole thing seems incredibly daunting, and the results people describe seem too good to be true.

If that's where you are, that's the ideal moment to have a conversation with someone who does this for a living. It doesn't have to be expensive—even a free hour can cut through months of confusion and show you what's possible.

I'll talk to anyone for an hour. Sometimes it turns into an engagement; sometimes I tell them it's not a good fit and we're done. Either way, you walk away with something.

Demand a Demo

This matters more in AI than almost any other category right now.

There is a lot of noise in this space—a lot of people claiming expertise they don't have. So before you bring anyone in, make them show you.

Give them a problem you're dealing with, ask them to share their screen, and watch them work through it from beginning to end.

If it's impressive, you'll know. And if it isn't, it costs you nothing.

That's how I approach every conversation with a potential client. I jump on a call, share my screen, and start solving something live. From beginning to end. That cuts through whatever's on the table pretty quickly—including (especially) the BS.

If the person you're evaluating won't do that, or can't, walk away.

BEFORE YOU GO…

A lot of people wrestle with this decision longer than they need to. Get honest about the 2 questions, and the answer usually reveals itself pretty easily.

If you want help working through it, we do free first calls at Surton. We'll figure out whether it makes sense to go further in less than an hour.

Talk soon,

Chris.