Your systems don't talk to each other, or two teams' systems have to become one.
Making separate platforms run as a single operation, whether they piled up through growth or arrived with an acquisition, a new brand, or a merge of teams.
The first call is always how deep to go.
A clean embed when that is all the workflow needs. A full custom API integration when it has to feel like one system. Getting that judgment wrong is expensive in both directions.
Too shallow and you have shipped a link between two systems that people still work around, which means you paid for an integration and kept the problem. Too deep and you have built and now maintain a custom pipeline for a workflow that a well-placed embed would have carried for years.
Systems arrive in one operation for different reasons, and the reason changes the work. Piling up through growth leaves duplication nobody chose. An acquisition, a new brand, or a merge of teams brings two of everything and a deadline.
What you leave with.
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IntegrationsThe connection itself, at the depth the workflow actually needs, with the reasoning for that depth written down rather than assumed.
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Data migrationMoving what is in the system you are retiring into the one you are keeping, which is usually where the timeline is really spent.
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Post-acquisition consolidationTwo of everything reduced to one, in the order that keeps both operations running while it happens.
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One source of truthThe end state worth having: one place each fact lives, so the reporting stops disagreeing with itself.
Three systems that wouldn't talk, and friction at every login.
An online certification brand ran its storefront on Shopify, authentication on Auth0, and its customer record in HubSpot, and none of the three passed data to the others in a way that let a customer move between them. What people felt was a login and registration flow they struggled through. What it cost the business was any single clear view of a student.
The answer was one authentication layer through Auth0 joining Shopify and HubSpot: one login and registration flow, and the customer data centralised behind it rather than split three ways. I led the plan to unify all three, alongside the storefront redesign that came out of the same review, and handed a clean design system to their in-house developers to build.
3 systems → 1 login Store, CRM and login unified into one flow, with one customer record behind it.Two systems that should be one? Start with a 30-minute call.
Book a 30-min introQuestions I get asked before this one starts.
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Do we need a full integration, or would an embed do?
It depends on how the workflow is used, and it is the first thing to settle. A clean embed is right when the workflow only needs the other system to be reachable. A full custom API integration is right when it has to feel like one system to the person using it. Getting that judgment wrong is expensive in both directions, so it gets decided deliberately rather than by whoever is quoting.
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We just acquired a company. Where does this start?
With what has to keep running, and what can be consolidated behind it. An acquisition brings two of everything and a deadline, which is a different problem from duplication that piled up through growth. The order of operations matters more than the individual integrations, because both operations have to keep working while it happens.
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Do you write the code?
No. The role is steering the team that builds it and answering for whether it ships. On the storefront work above, that meant leading the redesign and the plan to unify three systems, then handing a clean design system to the client's own developers to build.
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Is this a fixed-fee project or a retainer?
Either. Every engagement takes one of two shapes, a fixed-fee project or a defined-term retainer, and which one depends on the work rather than on which service you came in through. Either way you get a written scope and a price before anything starts.
Question not answered here? Ask it on the call.
Book a 30-min introNot sure how deep the integration needs to go? That's the call to make first.
Thirty minutes, no pitch, no slides. We talk through what's going sideways and whether I'm the right person to help. If I'm not, I'll say so.
Tell me what you're working on. I'll reply within 24–48 hours.
Thanks for reaching out.
I'll respond in 24–48 hours. Looking forward to chatting soon!