One list of questions
The questions are kept as data. The form renders that list and the document is written from the same list, so a question added once appears in both, and the two never disagree about what was asked.
Case study · IRIS
A custom intake form that sends nothing until you do.
A new engagement starts with the same questions: what you run, where the documents live, which reports matter and where the time goes. We built a custom intake form that asks them once, writes the answers into a document the person keeps, and sends nothing until they choose to.
IRIS (Integrated Reasoning & Intelligence Steward) is our planning assistant. The scoping page saves your answers to your own computer as a file, then offers a link to email them to us.
The problem
A prototype that could not keep its promises.
The questions began as a static page from our design team. It looked right, but every change meant editing the page and the document it was meant to produce separately, and an attachment control on it recorded file names while uploading nothing.
We also did not want to collect answers on a server before a conversation had started. A business describing its systems, files and security should decide when that description leaves its hands.
What we built
A form and its document from one definition.
Saved to your own computer
Finishing the form saves a single Markdown document to the person's computer. The page then offers an email link and asks them to attach the file and any supporting documents.
Skipping is allowed, and recorded
No question is required. The document lists what was left unanswered, so the engineer reading it can tell a question that did not apply from one the person did not get to.
Not advertised
The form is for someone we are already talking to, so it is left out of the sitemap and marked not to be indexed.
How we built it
Small choices, each held by a test.
- 01
Transcribe, then correct
We carried the prototype's questions over faithfully, replaced its sample answers with placeholders, and derived its section counter from the list so a new section cannot leave stale numbers behind.
- 02
Remove the false control
The attachment control was taken out. The request to attach files moved to the step where the email is in front of the person, where it can actually be done.
- 03
Prove it cannot pretend to submit
Tests fail if the form gains a network call or a form action, if it stops saving the file, or if the page becomes searchable.
The result
A short form, with nothing hidden in it.
- Short sections
- 7
- Company and contacts, current software, documents, reporting, time sinks, security, and the person's own questions for us.
- Questions
- 27
- Written once, and used both to draw the form and to write the document.
- Kinds of field
- 7
- Short and long text, email, phone, web address, one choice and several choices.
- Required fields
- 0
- Six good answers are worth more than a form abandoned at a question someone has to look up.
Measured 6 October 2026, from our main engineering repository as it stood that day.
Tell us what you need built.
Describe your systems, your reports and where the time goes on the IRIS scoping page. You keep a copy, and an engineer reads it before we talk.