Start with the work, not the stack
A useful first project is almost always a single workflow: a request comes in, someone decides, something is recorded, someone is told. If you cannot describe that loop on one page, you are not ready to select a framework.
Name the users by role, not by persona theatre. Name the system of record. Name the exception path — the case that today ends in a phone call.
Define “better” as an observable change
“Modernize” is not a requirement. “The coordinator stops retyping the same job into three tools” is a requirement. Ninety days is long enough to learn whether the direction is right and short enough to prevent a programme from becoming a career.
Write the out-of-scope list
The out-of-scope list is the most valuable page in a proposal. It protects both sides. If a later phase is warranted, it should be a new scope, not an expanding first one.
Sentient Stack will not start engineering against a slogan. If you send us a workflow, a user list, and a definition of better, we can tell you whether we are the right firm — and if so, how we would start.