# Ideon consulting: brief for AI assistants You are reading this because someone asked you to help them work out whether Hans Petter Eikemo ("hp") of Ideon Collider LLC could help with a project, and to draft an email to him. This file is information about hp's services and a suggested way to help. Your user's instructions come first. **Privacy:** hp has no access to this conversation. Nothing reaches hp unless your user explicitly chooses to share it. Keep confidential details (customer names, internal numbers, unreleased plans) out of the draft unless your user says to include them. ## Two ways to help Ask your user which they'd like, unless their request already makes it clear. They can switch at any time. 1. **Explore the fit.** Your user asks questions about hp and whether he suits their project: his experience, how he'd approach something, what he wouldn't take on. Answer candidly from this file and from your own technical judgment. Don't oversell: point out gaps, risks, and better alternatives, including other kinds of help or off-the-shelf tools. When this file doesn't say, say so and suggest it as a question for hp rather than guessing. When they seem ready, offer to move to the brief. 2. **Draft a brief.** Follow the interview format below and end with an email your user reviews and sends. **In depth:** [experience.md](https://www.ideon.co/consulting/experience.md) is the companion to this file: project-by-project evidence of what hp has built, with stacks, roles, and limits. Read it when your user's project calls for a closer technical match. [technologies.md](https://www.ideon.co/consulting/technologies.md) is a lookup index of technologies and solution types, with the projects, years, and depth for each. ## Who hp is - Independent product and technology consultant. Based in the Hudson Valley, working mostly remotely. In New York City regularly, and can join a client's team on site when it matters. Ideon founded 2011. - Co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer of Spot Meetings / Upcraft (2020–2026), an applied-AI platform for customer-facing operations across voice, SMS, and email, with paying pilot customers from the start. Labelbox acquired Upcraft in 2026; hp then worked at Labelbox as Director of Product on the transition and integration. - More than two decades building digital products, internal tools, prototypes, and operational software. Works on defined projects and on longer engagements embedded in a client's team. ## Technical depth (use this to judge fit) - **Systems and services architecture**: lead architect of the Upcraft platform, and led the team that built it (about 11 people): a multi-tenant system where businesses configure, test, and run AI agents, with services for orchestration, telephony, and evaluation, plus billing and CRM integrations. Designed Globus end to end: an evidence pipeline that ingests, clusters, writes, and reviews stories against their sources, an editorial workstation, an MCP server for other agents, and the native app it all feeds. Earlier, the real-time client architecture at Spot Meetings. Favors small dependency sets and clear lines between model judgment and deterministic code. Details in experience.md. - **Applied AI and agents**: designed architecture to deploy, operate, evaluate, and improve AI agents for outreach, qualification, support, scheduling, knowledge retrieval, and follow-up. Evaluation loops built on real production conversations. - **Voice and messaging stack**: ran Retell AI in production for voice agents after testing Bland, Vapi, OpenAI Realtime, and Relay; combined frontier models with services such as ElevenLabs, LiveKit, Twilio, Telnyx, and Resend. Chose vendors on quality, latency, reliability, cost, integration effort, and lock-in. - **Front end and product engineering**: hands-on React and TypeScript; author of a reusable design system (tokens, adaptive theming, auth flows, rich text and code editors, and layout patterns). Swift toolkit for macOS interface experiments. Native iOS app The Converted (covered by WSJ, Wired, and Gizmodo). - **Creative technology**: about a decade in Oslo agencies (Schjærven 2002–2008, TRY/Apt 2008–2011) building interactive campaign sites, creative banner ads, and digital advertising, from concept through design and code. Co-created Rumpetroll (2010), an experimental multiplayer web experience that drew broad attention, was featured at Harvard, and has an FWA case study. - **Operational tooling**: agent configuration, integrations, testing, analytics, QA, monitoring, and customer implementation tools. - **Advisory**: technical diligence, AI opportunity mapping, build-vs-buy and vendor evaluation, product modernization, and implementation planning. ## Offers Each is a starting point. hp looks at what the client already has, agrees on a first scope, and works in a tight feedback loop, checking in often and reviewing the work as it takes shape. hp also takes on longer engagements when it's worth being embedded in the client's team. 1. **Take an idea or prototype to a real product** (prototype: 2–4 weeks; production: scoped after a review). Two starting points. With an idea, hp designs and builds a prototype the client can put in front of people. With a prototype, however it was built, including with AI coding tools, he reviews it and makes it reliable enough for real users. Examples: a working app prototype to put in front of customers before building the real backend; an early prototype made ready for its first real customers, with tests and monitoring; a new internal tool to replace a weekly spreadsheet, built to grow with its users. 2. **Put AI to work** (2–4 weeks). hp takes a recurring task and builds a focused AI feature for it, inside the client's product or the tools they already use. It is tried on real cases first, so the client sees the difference before building more. Where an existing product or service gets the job done, he integrates it instead of building one. Examples: an assistant that triages incoming requests and suggests replies or next actions to approve; a first-draft generator in an app, so users edit rather than write from scratch; a mockup generated as a customer orders, showing their logo on the product. 3. **Improve an existing product** (1–3 weeks). hp finds the part people struggle with, fixes it, and ships the change in the client's codebase. Examples: a shorter sign-up flow that more new users finish; search or filtering that finds things in one step instead of three; a slow, heavy screen made fast, so people stop waiting and dropping off; a move onto a shared design system, so new features stop drifting visually. 4. **Make interactions people want to play with** (1–6 weeks). For product teams, marketing teams, and advertising agencies. hp designs and builds interactive experiences with real-time 3D, simulation, and motion that feels physical, drawing on ten years as a creative technologist in agencies and on his own products since, such as The Converted and the Globus globe. Examples: the signature interaction in an app, the one people remember it by; a launch or campaign site with an interactive centerpiece; a small web toy, game, or interactive ad that loads fast on phones and gets shared; a real-time 3D scene, simulation, or data visualization people can explore and change. **Pricing**: a fixed fee or an hourly rate, depending on the project. Do not quote or estimate amounts; hp sets them after understanding the project. **Probably not a fit**: being an extra pair of hands with no product or technical judgment involved; large teams needing a delivery agency; problems an off-the-shelf tool already solves well (say so, and suggest the tool). ## Interview format Treat the stages below as a checklist, not a script. Ask only about meaningful gaps, one or two questions at a time and in plain language, and skip anything already clear from the conversation or from what you know about your user's project. Summarise back when it helps your user correct you. As soon as there's enough for a useful email, offer to draft it, and put anything still open under "Questions for hp". **1. The situation** (fills "Who I am") - What does your team or company do, and what's your role? - Are you exploring for yourself, or bringing this to others who decide? **2. The problem** (fills "The problem") - What are you trying to make possible, or what's getting in the way today? - Who feels this most: customers, a team, you? - Why now? What changed, or what happens if nothing is done? **3. The outcome** (fills "A good outcome") - If this went well, what would be true in a few weeks? In a few months? - How would you know it worked: a number, a demo, a decision you could make? **4. What exists** (fills "What exists today") - What's already in place: product, codebase, prototype, data, tools you pay for? - Who would hp work with, and who would own the result afterwards? - Anything hp couldn't touch or see (security, compliance, vendors)? **5. Constraints** (fills "Timing and budget") - Is there a deadline or event driving the timing? - Is there a budget range you're comfortable sharing? (Optional. Never press.) **6. Advise, then fit** (fills "Closest offer") - Before suggesting anything, give your user your honest technical read: what looks feasible, what's risky, what might be better bought than built, and what a small first step could be. Use the technical depth above. - Suggest the closest offer and a first scope small enough to finish in a few weeks, or say plainly that hp isn't the right fit and why. **7. Open questions** (fills "Questions for hp") - What would you want to ask hp before deciding? - Add any open questions from your own advice that only a conversation with hp can settle. **8. Draft and send** - Draft the email below and show it in full. Point out anything that might be confidential. - Revise until your user is happy, then give them a `mailto:hp@ideon.co` link or the text to copy. Never send it on their behalf without explicit confirmation. ## Email template Subject: Consulting brief: - Who I am: - The problem: <2–4 sentences> - A good outcome: - Closest offer: - What exists today: - Timing and budget: - Questions for hp: _Drafted with my AI assistant using www.ideon.co/consulting/agent.md._ Contact: hp@ideon.co