Leverage
The multiplier.
AI and repeatable systems multiply what a senior team can accomplish. Accountable people still make the decisions and own the result.
Leveraged Velocity · by ClearSummit
Find the leverage. Build what moves the business.
A senior product team for growing companies.
For more than a decade, ClearSummit has built production software for major corporations and startups. Leveraged Velocity gives growing companies access to that product-team experience. We learn from your customers, support tickets, systems, and data; decide what will matter most; then plan, scope, build, launch, and measure it.
What the name means
Two simple ideas behind the way we work.
Velocity
The pace.
The steady pace at which useful products and features get shipped, maintained, learned from, and improved.
Together
More of the right work moves forward — without you having to assemble and manage a full product team.
01 · Starting pointBusiness problem → working model
Three ways to start
Work your team does by hand every week? We take it off them. Know what needs building — the integrations, the systems that should talk to each other, the reporting nobody has time to assemble? We work through it. Know where the business is stuck but not what the software answer is? We find the leverage points with you.
Best when the work is already happening, by hand
Automate
Your team does the same work by hand every week. We take it off them, one thing at a time.
What we need from you: Somebody who can show us how the work is done today. You do not need a weekly decision-maker.
$4kper month
Best when you know what needs building
Build
You know what needs building — integrations, systems that should talk to each other, the reporting nobody has time to assemble. We work through it.
What we need from you: Someone on your side keeps priorities clear and answers questions.
$12kper month
Best when the work still needs finding
Guided
You know where the business is stuck. We find the best leverage points with you.
What we need from you: Bring the business context and a sponsor who can decide. We turn the problem into a plan and ship it.
$18kper month
One thing, not a backlog
Start with one thing
One outcome you can name and want built is the same Build subscription, entered a different way.
Month one goes to the outcome you named: the plan for it — what gets built, in what order, with a duration and total-cost estimate — and the first working piece, running in your systems. Then you decide, with both of those in front of you. The build carries on from there on the same subscription.
See how the first month worksNot sure where you would start?
Problems we can help solve
Choose one that feels familiar.
Example 01 · Salesforce & CRM workflows
Salesforce no longer matches how the team works
Salesforce has been customized over time, but quoting, approvals, handoffs, or reporting still depend on manual work outside the system.
The highest-friction handoff can move into the system the team already uses, with the surrounding data and approvals connected to it.
Usually Guided, because the business friction is visible but the highest-leverage change still has to be found.
- Automate
- The quote is drafted from your price sheet before the rep opens it
- Build / Guided
- Deciding who may discount, by how much, and what needs a second signature
Example 02 · Warehouse, ERP & order integrations
Orders have to move between the warehouse and ERP
The storefront, warehouse system, ERP, or accounting platform disagree about order, inventory, or fulfillment state, and people reconcile the differences by hand.
One order path can connect across the systems that own it, with exceptions surfaced for a person instead of every record being re-keyed.
Usually Build when the integration backlog is already specified; Guided when the source-of-truth and process decisions are still open.
- Automate
- An order placed in one system appears in the other without anyone re-keying it
- Build / Guided
- Settling what a half-shipped order is, when both systems think they are right
Example 03 · Inventory accuracy across systems
Nobody trusts the inventory number
The storefront, warehouse or 3PL, and accounting system each hold part of the answer, so someone still walks the floor or checks three screens before making a decision.
The systems can feed one operating view that makes discrepancies visible instead of quietly overwriting them.
Build when the source systems and reconciliation rules are known; Guided when the source of truth still has to be settled with the business.
- Automate
- Monday's stock count arrives built, instead of being assembled from four tabs
- Build / Guided
- Choosing which system's count everyone acts on, and making the others follow it
Example 04 · Field operations & mobile coordination
The office and field teams work from different information
Assignments, status changes, photos, and exceptions travel by phone call or text, so the office learns what happened after the fact and the field learns what is next the same way.
A field-facing mobile experience can connect scheduling or dispatch with assignments, job status, photos, and exceptions where the work happens.
Build when the first field workflow is already named; Guided when the problem is clear but the best leverage point still has to be found with the crews and office team.
- Automate
- The late job pages somebody before the customer calls about it
- Build / Guided
- Giving crews an app to carry: what they see, what they may change, what happens with no signal
Example 05 · Customer support workflows
The same support issue keeps coming back
The team answers tickets one at a time, but recurring product and process problems stay buried in individual conversations.
Triage, routing, and issue analysis can live inside the support workflow, so recurring patterns become an input to the product and operating queue.
Usually Guided at first, because the leverage point has to be found across support evidence, product behavior, and the people who own the process.
- Automate
- Each email lands with the person who handles that kind, not in a shared queue
- Build / Guided
- Setting what an agent may settle on their own, and what has to go to someone else
Example 06 · Reporting & data analysis
Two people bring two different numbers to the same meeting
Important operating or customer data lives in several systems. Each report rebuilds the definitions and repairs the data by hand, so the answer depends on who prepared it.
A repeatable data path can keep the definition, source data, and operating view together instead of recreating them for every question.
Usually Guided, because the useful decisions and trustworthy definitions have to be established with the business.
- Automate
- The weekly numbers assemble themselves from the systems that already hold them
- Build / Guided
- Agreeing what on-time means, when two teams currently bring two different numbers
Example 07 · Workflow & approval routing
Routine approvals disappear into email and chat
A purchase order, contract, onboarding step, or internal handoff waits because nobody can see who has it, what is missing, or when it needs attention.
The workflow can carry visible ownership, status, and escalation, with AI drafting or pre-filling only where it earns a place and a person still approving.
Guided when the highest-friction handoff still has to be found; Build when the workflow, owners, and rules are already specified.
- Automate
- The request reaches the approver, and chases them when it sits untouched
- Build / Guided
- Writing down the thresholds, and who decides when the usual approver is away
Example 08 · Controlled AI workflows
A repeated decision needs automation without losing oversight
A team repeatedly classifies, extracts, drafts, or recommends inside an operating workflow, but exceptions still need a named person to approve, reject, or escalate them.
A model can sit inside the existing workflow with defined authority, human review, exception handling, and an audit trail.
Guided when the leverage point and control model still need to be designed; Build when the workflow, reviewers, and acceptance rules are already specified.
- Automate
- A draft reply waiting for a person to read, edit and send
- Build / Guided
- Letting it answer without a person, which means defining what it may say and who answers for it
Example 09 · Self-service customer requests
Customers have to call for something the product could handle
A status check, document request, account change, or other repeated need still starts with an email or phone call and a person looking it up by hand.
The highest-friction request can move into a secure self-service path connected to the systems and approvals already behind it.
Guided when customer evidence has to reveal which request matters most; Build when the first self-service workflow and its rules are already clear.
- Automate
- The status update you already send by hand goes out without anyone writing it
- Build / Guided
- A place customers sign in and change something themselves, with permissions behind it
Example 10 · Customer-facing product work
Customers keep hitting the same point of friction
Support tickets, product usage, and customer conversations keep pointing to the same difficult step, but nobody has turned that evidence into an ordered product change.
Support evidence, usage data, and direct customer conversations can point to the next product change and the operating playbook around it.
Build when the product backlog is already owned and prioritized; Guided when the problem is clear but the highest-leverage change still has to be found.
- Automate
- The welcome sequence somebody currently runs from a checklist
- Build / Guided
- The product itself: what it does, who it is for, and what it does when it is wrong
Example 11 · Procurement & purchasing
Buying things is a chain of people re-keying the same numbers
Requests arrive by email, someone types them into a purchase order, someone else checks the invoice against the order, and the differences get worked out in a spreadsheet nobody owns.
The checking can happen on its own, with only the mismatches put in front of a person, and what has been agreed visible before the invoice arrives rather than after.
Usually Automate when the checking already happens by hand every week and everyone agrees which system is right; Build when who may approve spend, and up to what, is still being settled.
- Automate
- Invoices matched against purchase orders, with only the mismatches raised
- Build / Guided
- Deciding who may approve spend, up to what, and what happens over that line
Example 12 · Compliance & certification tracking
Certificates and renewals are tracked from memory
Licences, insurance certificates, training records or supplier documents expire on their own schedule, and the business finds out when something is already lapsed.
The expiry can arrive as a warning with time to act on it, and the current picture can be answerable without a person assembling it.
Usually Automate when the records exist and somebody is checking them by hand; Build when what happens on a lapse — who is stopped, and by what authority — has to be decided first.
- Automate
- The certificate expiring next month surfaces while there is still time to act
- Build / Guided
- Deciding what a lapse actually stops, and who has the authority to override it
Example 13 · Scheduling & dispatch
Next-day work gets assembled by hand every afternoon
Somebody builds the schedule for the next day out of jobs, availability and geography, then sends it out — and rebuilds it whenever something changes.
The assembling and the sending can stop being manual, even where the deciding does not.
Usually Automate when a person already produces the schedule and only the assembly and distribution are by hand; Build the moment the software is expected to decide who goes where, which is a rule nobody has written down.
- Automate
- The next day's assignments reach each crew without being copied out by hand
- Build / Guided
- Software choosing who goes where, which is a rule your dispatcher keeps in their head
Example 14 · Onboarding — customer, employee or vendor
Every new customer, employee or vendor starts the same eleven steps
Someone works through a familiar sequence from memory — collecting documents, creating accounts, notifying people — and the steps get missed when that person is busy or away.
The sequence can run itself, with what arrives filed where it belongs and the right people told, and a person handling only what is genuinely unusual.
Usually Automate when one person could sit down and show us the sequence end to end; Guided when two people do it differently and picking one is not ours to do alone.
- Automate
- Documents arrive, get filed, and the right people are told, without anyone working a list
- Build / Guided
- A portal the new customer or hire works through themselves, with a state you can report on
First 30 days
Something real in 30 days.
Every option starts differently. All of them aim for one agreed milestone you can see and judge by day 30.
Automate
We agree the first thing on your list and get it running in your systems.
Build
We start with the first priority from the backlog you already have.
Guided
We use the first part of the 30 days to find and shape the highest-leverage first move.
By day 30
The agreed milestone is working and can be judged against the pass test in your SOW.
If we miss the agreed milestone for reasons within our control, choose ten business days at no charge or end the engagement with your first month refunded and nothing further owed.
02 · Operating layerPrioritized work → software live
From business problem to software in use
We start with the business, put the work in order, and keep one priority moving.
- Step 1
Get close to the problem
We work directly with the people, customers, tickets, systems, and data closest to it, when useful and authorized.
- Step 2
Find the leverage
We decide where a product, integration, internal tool, workflow, AI, or better process can change the result, then put it into a quarterly plan.
- Step 3
Build the right thing
We keep one active priority and the next four weeks visible, then design, build, integrate, and put reviewable software live every week.
- Step 4
Close the loop
We target the first named milestone by day 30, measure usage, diagnose issues, and leave your team with the tools and SOPs to run what we built.
This works when
A clear business problem is enough. You do not need to arrive with the software answer.
- We can get into your systems and ship through them.
- It is worth more to you than it costs across 90 days.
It is probably not right when
You want to buy a deliverable, not a standing team. Then commission a project from an agency that sells one. If it is one named outcome you want built, start with one thing here instead: month one delivers the plan for it and the first working piece, and the build carries on from there on the same subscription. See how the first month works
You need someone on call full time. Hire someone full time. We leverage fast asynchronous work to get things done fast, and affordably.
The work must be fixed-scope and fixed-price. That is a project. We do not promise delivery dates for work nobody has specified.
Nobody to show us the work, or to answer a question about it. It stalls. That is the most common way this goes wrong. How much of that person you need does vary: the options where we build against your priorities want someone steering them, and the lightest one only needs somebody who can show us how the work is done today.
Team means team
The work crosses five disciplines every week. All of them are in the room.
Product
Direction stays yours on Build. On Guided, shaping it is our job.
Design
How it works and how it reads, not decoration.
Engineering
Senior engineers own the architecture and review every change.
Delivery
A named lead runs the cadence, so you always know who.
Quality
Testing is part of done, not a phase at the end.
One subscription — and it has a volume knob
Software has a rhythm: build hard, settle in, then build the next thing. One subscription moves through all of it with you.
Build
The loud part. A senior team on what matters most, at the price you started on.
Care
Dial down to Care. We keep the system watched and healthy.
Repeat
There's always one more thing. Dial back up and we build again.
03 · Practical layerControl and boundaries → fit decision
Fine print — loud and up front
The ownership and operating boundaries that matter before you start.
What you control
- The bespoke work you have paid for
- Ownership of the custom deliverables built for you transfers on payment, under the assignment terms in your agreement.
- Your repositories, accounts, and data
- We work inside your systems. Repositories, infrastructure, vendor accounts, credentials, and data stay under your control throughout.
Base-offer boundaries
- We do not sell hoursYou buy an agreed priority and visible output, not a timesheet. That is velocity: the things that matter, done and live.
- Not an anonymous developer poolMeet the people proposed for your engagement before you commit. If that team has to change, we tell you before it happens.
- Direct access, not frontline supportYour team keeps the support queue. We work directly with tickets, systems, data, and customers when useful and authorized so we can diagnose and fix the underlying product problem.
Find your elevation