Estimators only work when they are consistent. That means a tight prompt, a clear discovery flow, and a way to keep the conversation anchored on scope.
The problem I wanted to solve
Most early conversations drift. A client starts with a goal, but the details needed to price the work never surface.
I wanted an experience that:
- feels like a real discovery call
- asks the right follow up questions
- outputs a realistic budget range
The approach
I split the flow into three phases:
- Initial understanding
- Technical discovery
- Estimation and next steps
Each phase has guardrails to prevent scope creep, and a handoff point that moves the user to a clear call to action.
Example dialogue
Here's a real example of how the estimator stays focused on scope:
User: "I need an e-commerce site with payments and admin panel"
Estimator: "I can help estimate that. A few questions to narrow scope:
- Are you selling physical goods, digital products, or both?
- Do you need inventory management, or will products be static?
- Should the admin panel handle orders, products, and analytics, or just orders?"
This back-and-forth continues until the estimator has enough to produce a structured estimate:
Estimated Timeline: 2–3 weeks
Scope Assumptions:
- Single currency (USD), single payment method (Stripe)
- ~50–100 products, no inventory sync
- Admin panel: orders + product CRUD only
Phases:
- Week 1: Core checkout flow + Stripe integration
- Week 2: Admin panel + product management
- Week 3: Testing + deployment
Budget Range: $4,000–$6,000
Risk Notes:
- Complexity increases significantly with multi-currency or inventory sync
- Admin analytics would add ~1 week
Tech stack
The estimator runs on:
- Groq for fast LLM inference (llama-3.3-70b for text, llama-4-scout-17b for vision)
- Next.js 14 with App Router for the frontend
- Vercel Blob for screenshot storage
- Resend for email notifications
- Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui for the chat interface
The result
The estimator delivers structured outputs that include:
- scope assumptions
- timeline phases
- budget range and risk notes
It is now reliable enough to use as the first step in my pipeline, without replacing a real consultation.
