Deskless Consulting

Something here isn't working. I'll tell you what — and whether it's worth paying anyone, me included, to fix it.

Deskless is one senior engineer. Point me at the thing that's wrong:

a process eating your Thursdays
a report that disagrees with itself
data nobody trusts
an AI tool giving confident wrong answers

I'll tell you in writing what's actually true and what's actually broken. Then I fix it, or build the thing you needed instead.

For owners of 5–50 person companies, and for the person inside a bigger one who owns the number.

Bring me a problem — $500 See the three ways to start ↓

Fifteen years of this: enterprise analytics and data systems at a large software company, a UN disaster-data pipeline across 100+ countries, a web company's analytics built from zero. I wrote the Adobe dbt package that didn't exist.

Fixed price. Written findings. No retainers. I do the work myself. NDA on request, and I delete what you send on delivery. If day one shows the job is bigger than the box, I tell you then and you can stop at no charge.

REV.2026.11

PRICEFIXED PRICE

TERMSNO RETAINER

How this usually goes

Say what's wrong Two sentences in an email is plenty. I've never needed a brief.
Ninety minutes You show me the actual screens, I ask the annoying questions, and you get a written plan and a straight answer — including "don't pay anyone for this."
Fix it or build it If it's worth doing, I do it. Hours capped and written down before I start. You keep the code.
Or start at the other end If the real problem is that your team got told to use AI and nobody knows how, skip the diagnosis and book the day.

I do the work myself. Automated checks run first; I read every finding and write every fix. Scope, findings, fixes — all written down, so nothing important lives only in my head.

01 Offer specifications

Offers

No slides

SPEC-01 · GET YOUR TEAM USING AI

Get Your Team Using AI

$2,500 · half day | $4,000 · full day | up to 8 people

For the manager whose team got told to use AI and nobody knows how.

Spend a half day with someone who does this for a living — on your tools, your files, your actual work, not slides. Everyone leaves with one thing that runs on Monday.

Full day if you want everyone to leave with two things and a written playbook for the rest.

up to 8 people · in person on the Front Range, or remote · your tools, not mine · NDA on request, and I delete what you send on delivery.

Book a half day

SPEC-02 · BRING ME A PROBLEM

Bring Me a Problem

$500 · 90 minutes

For the owner or lead who has a thing that isn’t working and no straight answer about it.

Bring one problem: a process eating your Thursdays, a report that disagrees with itself, a number you’ve stopped trusting. We spend 90 minutes on it — me asking, you showing me the actual screens. You get a recording, a one-page written plan, and a straight answer about whether it’s worth paying anyone, me included, to fix it.

credited in full against any project you book · one problem, not a tour of the company · NDA on request, and I delete what you send on delivery.

Book 90 minutes

SPEC-03 · FIX IT / BUILD IT

Fix It / Build It

$4,000 · up to 22 hours | $9,000 · up to 45 hours

For the lead who already knows what’s wrong — or who has been putting off building the thing for two years.

One thing that doesn’t work, working. Or one thing that doesn’t exist, existing. Scoped in writing on day one; if day one shows it’s bigger than the box, I tell you then and you can stop at no charge. Documentation, two weeks of support, and you keep the code.

I have a day job. So you get my hours, capped and written down, instead of a fake sprint — with a start date and a finish date quoted alongside the scope.

fixed price, so an overrun is my problem · no retainer, no ongoing account access · NDA on request, and I delete what you send on delivery.

Scope a fix

Where this usually goes

None of this is on the card. It’s what tends to happen once the first piece of work is good.

Sometimes the honest answer after 90 minutes is “we don’t know what’s true yet.” Then the next step is a week of me checking the system your decisions ride on, from the outside in, and writing down what’s true, what’s broken, and what each broken thing is costing you — ranked, with a fix for each one.
The Adobe Analytics or GA4 data you’re moving into Snowflake, BigQuery or Fabric — export design, the eVar/prop → XDM → warehouse-table translation, dbt models your BI team can actually use.
The reporting setup that quietly disagrees with itself — traced back to the source and fixed there, not papered over in the dashboard.
The internal tool that’s been “next quarter” for two years.
A pile of documents nobody can read — tens of thousands of reports, surveys, PDFs — turned into a dataset you can query and a report you can stand behind. (I’ve done this for the UN.)

If one of those is you, start with the 90 minutes anyway. It’s cheaper for both of us to find out on $500 whether we work well together.

Adobe Analytics, CJA and AEP are a specialty, not the boundary. The Adobe page →

02 Receipts

PROOF · 01 · OPEN SOURCE

The Adobe dbt package that didn’t exist

dbt-adobe-events turns AEP/Web SDK, CJA and Adobe Analytics Data Feed exports into tested sessions, page-views and users tables — the thing every other warehouse has and Adobe didn’t. Apache-2.0, written by me. It is the fastest way to check whether I know this stack without taking my word for anything.

PROOF · 02 · SAMPLE

A findings report, start to finish

A CJA/AEP drift audit on synthetic data, in the real format: two verticals, stitching coverage at 61%, a silent reporting-timezone flip, an orphaned dimension. Same depth you’d get. Your data instead of invented data.

Read the sample

PROOF · 03 · SAMPLE

What a single finding reads like

A consent plugin defaulting analytics_storage: denied on a US blog with no consent banner, hiding every blog visitor from Google Analytics and Google Ads. Plus four rogue Meta pixel IDs and a booking subdomain missing from the lookup table. Real findings, names and IDs removed.

Anonymized report

PROOF · 04 · IN PUBLIC

How one person moves this fast

The checks are automated — my own tooling, built over a year and documented in public. The reading, the judgement and the fixes are me. You can watch me think in the open before you hire me.

Operating manual

Enterprise Adobe Analytics, CJA and AEP UN disaster-data pipeline, 100+ countries (2025) A web company’s analytics built from zero

A local build, delivered: VendingVault4U site + QR machine-feedback loop

03 Principal / operator

About

Dan Bonomo, Fort Collins, Colorado. Fifteen years building and measuring data systems: enterprise Adobe Analytics, CJA and AEP at a large software company, a UN disaster-data pipeline across 100+ countries, a web company’s analytics built from zero, and a small consultancy of my own before all of that.

Deskless is deliberately small — one senior engineer, one or two jobs at a time. That’s the reason everything here is fixed-scope and written down: you get the person, not a team, and you know what you’re buying before you pay for it. If I think you don’t need me, I will say so and you’ll have it in writing.

I still have a day job, which I like, and I’m not pretending otherwise. It’s why the work is sold in capped hours rather than heroic sprints. The hours you buy are real hours, and they’re mine.

Deskless is the storefront. BTF4E is the lab.

04 Frequently asked

Frequently asked

Q1 What do you need access to?

For the 90 minutes, nothing but a screen you’re willing to share. For a fix or a build, the least access that does the job — read-only wherever read-only works, exported snapshots where those are enough, and no change to production that isn’t in writing first. NDA on request, and I delete what you send me on delivery.

Q2 Can I see what I’d get before paying?

Yes. The sample findings report and the anonymized finding are both linked above. Same format, same depth, your data instead of invented data.

Q3 Who actually does the work?

I do. There is no bench and no junior behind the curtain. Automated checks run first, then I read every finding and write every fix myself.

Q4 Does the $500 come off a bigger project?

Yes — credited in full against any project you book. And if the answer after 90 minutes is “this isn’t worth paying for,” you get that answer in writing and we both get on with our week.

Q5 Is this a retainer?

No. Every offer is a fixed price with a written scope and an end. If you want me again later, it gets quoted again — and by then I already know where the bodies are buried.

Q6 What if the job turns out to be bigger than the box?

You find out on day one, in writing, and you can stop at no charge. If we go ahead, the price doesn’t move — going over the cap is my problem, which is the whole point of a fixed price.

Q7 Why hours instead of weeks?

Because I have a day job and “two weeks” would be a promise about my calendar rather than your work. You buy a capped number of my hours — 22 or 45 — and I quote a start date and a finish date alongside the scope. Fewer impressive adjectives, more keeping my word.

Q8 Will this eat my team’s time?

The 90 minutes needs you and a screen. A fix or a build needs one person who can answer questions and grant access — not a working group.

Q9 Is the team day in person?

In person anywhere on the Front Range, or remote if that’s easier. Up to eight people, on your tools and your real work. No slides, no certificate, no trust falls.

Q10 Do you work locally?

Yes — Fort Collins and the Front Range, in person when it helps. Most of the work is remote and asynchronous, and calls happen during US business hours, Mountain or Central.

Q11 Why “Deskless”?

Because the point is technology that works for the people doing the work, not more dashboards for the people watching them. It’s the line in the footer, and I did mean it.

So — what isn’t working?

Ninety minutes, $500, one problem. You get a written plan and a straight answer, including the free one: don’t pay anyone for this.

Bring me a problem

dan@desklessconsulting.com