About
John Cole · Stax
Stax is a principal-led senior software engineering practice focused on business-critical custom software that already exists. Clients work directly with me—architecture, implementation, migration, and the judgment calls that come with systems the business cannot casually break.
The commercial work is usually some mix of application takeover, stabilization, modernization, and continued engineering—especially when ownership is broken, documentation is thin, or change has become risky while the business still depends on the software.
What is different about working with Stax is direct access to the engineer doing the work—senior, U.S.-based, hands-on—and a method that starts with understanding before significant change. Fixed-price when scope permits. You own the systems and the documentation that makes them legible.
Selected evidence is on the Work pages: systems supporting roughly 100k items across operational roles, and an active rebuild of a decade-old inventory platform with 1M+ records migrated to date.
The broader practice
Client work produces evidence. That evidence feeds a longer professional arc—without pretending the later stages are already a finished business:
- Client work produces evidence.
- HDSE formalizes engineering lessons as more implementation can be delegated to machines.
- Writing documents what is learned.
- Teaching and speaking are the next channels for transferring those ideas to other engineers and teams.
- Advisory is a longer-term destination as judgment accumulates—not a current product page.
How Stax carries out the engineering work is described on the Method page.