Praxis Lab
Products
Houston Spreadsheet change control

Praxis Lab is for you if:

  1. Your business makes, sells or delivers beautiful, practical, lasting products.
  2. The problem sits between how work actually moves and the systems meant to support it.
  3. You want an experienced operator working alongside you to find and prove the next move.

Technology research, systems advisory and operational problem-solving for design-led physical-product businesses.

Business problems we work on.

The work starts where operating reality, technology choices and commercial consequences meet — before the answer is obvious, and before the wrong commitment becomes expensive.

Operational

  • We’re quoting lead times we can’t always hit — and we don’t have a reliable way to know until it’s too late.
  • Our team spends more time chasing information than acting on it.
  • We process everything in spreadsheets and email. It works until it doesn’t — and it’s starting not to.
  • We know the spreadsheet is breaking, but replacing everything at once would be reckless.

Decision

  • We know we need a proper system. We don’t know whether to build, buy, wait — or make a first version ourselves.
  • We’re about to commit to a platform. We want someone to pressure-test that decision first.
  • Everyone’s talking about automation and AI. We need to know what is useful, what is noise, and what to ignore.

Transition

  • The founder is still the system. We need to change that before it becomes a crisis.
  • We’ve outgrown how we work, but we don’t know what to replace it with — or in what order.
  • A key wholesale partner wants better data from us. We’re not sure what that actually requires.
  • We don’t need a transformation programme yet. We need a working first version that shows us what to fix.

The operator behind Praxis.

Praxis Lab is led by Gerard Sweeney.

Gerard spent fourteen years helping build a UK-based manufacturer with more than 100 employees, from its early stages through international growth and acquisition. He later led technology work inside an engineering scale-up and substantial product, workflow and PLM-style systems work.

Praxis exists to bring that experience to the questions design-led physical-product businesses actually face: how information moves, where systems break down, what decisions need pressure-testing, and when a first useful version is better than a long theoretical plan.

Praxis works in three modes.

Bearing

A focused diagnostic resulting in a clear problem definition, risk map and recommended next move.

Vector

A structured research engagement producing tested options, evidence, trade-offs and a practical recommendation built for the specific situation.

Velocity

A hands-on engagement to create, test or improve a first useful workflow, tool, reporting layer, operating rhythm or delivery plan. Scoped by the quarter.

Built by Praxis

Houston

Spreadsheet change control for operational files. Houston tracks successive versions of working spreadsheets and shows teams what changed and what needs human attention—without replacing the files they already use.

Explore Houston

If you recognise the problem but not yet the next move, email Gerard with the file, workflow or system decision you are wrestling with. He will tell you candidly whether Praxis is a fit.

let’s talk.