Consulting and applied AI, held to one engineering standard
We advise on and build the systems organisations run on, and we teach the same engineering to people entering the industry. Both are held to the standard the delivery work sets.
Two businesses that only make sense together
Novel Technologies is built as two practices — consulting and applied-AI delivery, and instructor-led training — because neither is entirely trustworthy on its own. A consultancy that never teaches loses the habit of explaining its decisions. A training business with no delivery work behind it has nothing to correct its curriculum against.
So the two are deliberately coupled. The standard the curriculum is taught to is the standard delivery work demands, and when that work changes the curriculum changes with it. The people who teach are the people who build, which is what makes the coupling real rather than stated.
That constraint is the whole design. It costs us teaching capacity and it makes hiring harder, and we accept both, because the alternative is a curriculum drifting toward whatever is easiest to teach and delivery advice nobody has to stand behind.
To raise the technical standard on both sides of the hiring conversation — building capable engineers and the organisations that can employ them well.
We intend to be measured on whether the people we train are still doing the work years later, and whether the systems we build are still being extended by the teams we hand them to. Both are slower signals than revenue and considerably more honest.
Six things we hold to
These are operating constraints rather than aspirations — each one costs us something, which is the only reason they are worth stating.
Say the inconvenient thing
We will tell a candidate when the timing is wrong for them, and a client when a programme should be cancelled. An advisor who only confirms what you already decided is an expensive form of agreement.
Teach to the standard, not to the test
Our curriculum is set by what delivery work actually demands. When those requirements change, the curriculum changes — even when the existing material is easier to teach.
Build to be inherited
Every system we deliver is written to be maintained by someone who was not there when it was built. Documentation, tests and handover are part of the work, not a phase that gets cut.
No hidden incentives
We hold no vendor reseller agreements, take no referral fees, and disclose both bill and pay rates on staffing engagements. Advice is only worth something when the advisor gains nothing from the answer.
Small senior teams
The people in the first conversation are the people on the engagement. We do not run a model where partners sell and juniors deliver.
Measure the outcome, not the activity
Whether the people we train are still doing the work years on, whether the systems we build are still maintained, whether anyone adopted them after launch. Hours billed and modules completed measure effort, not results.
Whichever side brought you here
Whether you are considering a career change or evaluating a delivery partner, the first conversation costs nothing and comes with a straight answer.