Classified

OPERATION NOVA

DaySmart AI Transformation Playbook
Prepared for CTO Jason Kirk

Authorized personnel only

Operation Nova
Mission Briefing
Kelly SETT / Motion Consulting Group — April 2026

OPERATION NOVA

An AI transformation playbook for DaySmart Software. Built with the same tools and approach we propose for your teams.

From one veteran to another
Scroll to begin▼
Situation Report

CURRENT SITREP

DaySmart's position: strong market presence, aggressive growth, and a tech stack becoming the bottleneck to the next phase.

Friendly Forces
What's Working
30,000+ businesses served. 10 consecutive years on Inc. 5000. $19.9M revenue. 191 employees operating lean. Patrick Shanahan's M&A machine has added 9 companies since 2019. Operational tooling standardized: Jira, Confluence, GitHub, AWS.
Opposing Forces
What's Threatening
Fresha deployed AI agent "Nova" — 80% automated support, 4.6/5 CSAT. Competitors with unified stacks deploy AI faster. 6+ programming languages creating integration friction. Individual AI adoption not translating to team-level gains. 35-day epic cycle time bleeding capital.

"It takes us on average 35 days to get an epic into production. How can we drive that down to 16, 17 days?"

— CTO Jason Kirk, DaySmart
Mission objective is specific and measurable. We calibrate everything to this metric.
50%
Target reduction in epic cycle time — 35 days to 16-17 days. Effectively doubling output without adding headcount.
Terrain Analysis

THE BATTLEFIELD

Nine acquisitions. Ten products. Six-plus programming languages. Each acquisition brought customers and technical debt in equal measure.

ProductOriginStackStatus
DaySmart SalonHomegrown 1999PHPLegacy desktop + cloud
DaySmart PetHomegrownPHPLegacy
DaySmart Body ArtHomegrownPHPMobile + web
DaySmart SpaHomegrownPHPLegacy
AppointmentsAcquired 2020.NETEnterprise SaaS
Vet (Vetter)Acquired 2021Python NodeCloud-native, has AI
Recreation (Dash)Acquired 2021Node.jsModern SaaS
TeamUpAcquired 2022RubyUK-based
Time To PetAcquired 2024RubyRails + MySQL
SlickAcquired 2026TBDUK — newest

"DaySmart is a portfolio of companies. We have like 10 different businesses. That's why we have every technology under the sun."

— CTO Jason Kirk
The code is fragmented. The operational layer is unified. That's our integration point.
Key terrain assessment: We don't standardize the code. We standardize the dispatch system. The common ground — Jira, GitHub, Confluence, AWS — is where AI agents operate. The underlying languages become irrelevant when the orchestration layer is unified.
Commander's Profile

KNOW YOUR CTO

Jason Kirk. 28 years in technology. United States Marine Corps veteran. NBC Defense Specialist, 1997–2001. He doesn't suffer vaporware or slide decks.

Service Record
Background
USMC — NBC Defense Specialist, 1997–2001
Park University — BS Management/CIS
CCBill — VP Product Development
REPAY — CTO, led company through 2019 IPO
DaySmart — CTO since January 2022
Recognition — Top 25 Executives of Arizona, 2024
Decision Framework
How He Evaluates
Customer Impact — Does this ship features faster?
Cycle Time — Is it measurable? He tracks to the day.
Scale — Does it work across all 10 products?
Platform — Does it unify the portfolio?
Pragmatic — No studies. No frameworks. Results.

"We have established processes that work and give us good data. It's just — how do we take those processes and hook agents up to them?"

— CTO Jason Kirk
He's not asking for process redesign. He's asking for augmentation. We respect what works. We accelerate it.

"How can we make these agents like our actual employees that are doing the work, but our employees are overseeing it?"

— CTO Jason Kirk
Agents as teammates, not tools. Humans as strategists, not line workers.

"If all the entire engineering team is coding with Claude, then basically you're going to have a bunch of engineering resources that are starved for requirements. Product managers won't be able to keep up."

— CTO Jason Kirk
He sees the system, not the individual. Solutions must accelerate the entire pipeline — product, engineering, and QA — or you just move the bottleneck.
Operations Order

THE BATTLE PLAN

Jason's vision for Project Nova — and how Kelly executes alongside his teams to make it operational.

Agent Pipeline — The Digital Fire Team

Mission Brief
▶
Product Agent
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Architecture Agent
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Developer Agent
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QA Agent
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Test Env
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Commander Review
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Deploy

"The idea is to have your product agent, architecture agent, developer agent, QA agent get together and hash out a plan. You iterate on it fast, extremely fast. Once the plan is approved, the AI goes off and builds it."

— CTO Jason Kirk

Three-Phase Campaign

Phase 1 — Reconnaissance
AI Discovery and Readiness
Duration: 2 weeksInvestment: $15,000
  • Map the SDLC across all 10 products — identify where time is lost
  • Assess AI readiness per team and tech stack
  • Identify top 3–5 high-impact automation opportunities
  • Wire specific AI tooling into existing Jira/GitHub pipelines
  • Interview Jason, Matt, and key team leads
Deliverable: Implementation-ready playbook. Exact wiring diagrams for how AI agents connect to your infrastructure via MCP.
Phase 2 — Assault
Project Nova Acceleration
Duration: 6–8 weeksInvestment: $80,000 – $120,000
  • Embed Kelly AI engineers shoulder-to-shoulder with Nova teams
  • Build the agent pipeline: Product, Architecture, Dev, QA
  • Integrate with Jira, GitHub, and Confluence via MCP
  • Deploy ephemeral test environments — never touching production
  • Prove the metric: demonstrate path to 16–17 day epic cycle time
Success gate: Hard data showing cycle time compression on the CRM integration. If we don't move the needle, we earned nothing.
Phase 3 — Consolidation
Enterprise Rollout and M&A Integration
Duration: 12–18 monthsInvestment: $500K – $1M+/year
  • Roll validated AI workflows to all 10 product teams
  • Build the M&A AI integration playbook — for acquisition 10, 11, 12
  • Platform unification consulting — shared services layer
  • AI-powered product features to compete with Fresha
  • Ongoing embedded AI talent and strategic advisory
The real ROI: Every future acquisition plugs into the AI dispatch system immediately. No more inheriting tech debt — you inherit velocity.
Arsenal

WEAPONS SYSTEMS

Specific tools for DaySmart's multi-stack environment. Production-grade systems that work across PHP, Python, .NET, Ruby, and Node.

Claude Code
Complex reasoning, multi-file changes across any language. Your teams are already using this — we optimize how it's deployed.
Already Deployed
GitHub Copilot
Inline completions and PR summaries. Handles day-to-day coding assist across all your languages.
Already Deployed
Claude MCP
Model Context Protocol — the universal translator. Connects AI directly to Jira, GitHub, Confluence. Stack-agnostic. The backbone of the agent pipeline.
Mission Critical
Cursor IDE
AI-native development environment. Chat, inline editing, multi-file changes in one interface. Handles all your languages.
Recommended
CodeRabbit
AI code review on every PR. Parses abstract syntax trees — understands legacy PHP as well as modern Node. Consistent quality across all products.
Recommended
Snyk
Security scanning across every language and framework in your portfolio. One scanner for PHP, .NET, Ruby, Python, Node — and all dependencies.
Recommended
Security posture: All AI tools configured for enterprise data isolation — no training on DaySmart code. API key management protocols established. GDPR compliance for UK operations. AI-generated code requires human security review before production.
Deployment Order

YOUR STRIKE TEAM

Senior operators who embed with your teams. Not offshore bodies — practitioners who have built this before.

Roxy Lee
Relationship Lead
Sr. Capture Director. Long-standing relationship with CEO Shanahan. Knows DaySmart's business, culture, and people.
Richard Taubin
AI Strategy Lead
Built this playbook. Disabled veteran, USAF. Leads AI strategy and tooling for Kelly SETT.
Wade Erickson
Agentic AI Expert
Builds 2–3 agents per week. Deep expertise in process transformation — from agile to AI-native workflows.
Mark
Senior Strategy
Client-facing executive. Led engagements for AT&T, healthcare, energy. MCG delivery credibility.
Treasure
Account Lead
Taking point on the DaySmart relationship. Your day-to-day contact for execution and results.
Casey Richie
Executive Sponsor
EVP, Motion Consulting Group. Full resources and leadership behind this engagement.
Communications Log

HOW WE BUILT THIS PLAYBOOK

Full transparency. No smoke and mirrors. This is exactly the process we propose for your teams — and we used it on ourselves first.

01
Intelligence Gathering
Researched DaySmart's 9 acquisitions, mapped every tech stack, studied Jason Kirk's background and public statements, analyzed the competitive landscape, and read the PE strategy from LLR Partners and Parthenon Capital.
02
Listening to Jason
Transcribed and analyzed every statement Jason made about Project Nova, his vision for AI agents, and his frustration with individual-level AI adoption. Every recommendation in this playbook maps directly to something he told us he needs.
03
Team Strategy Session
Our full team came together to discuss approach, assign roles, and align on how to serve DaySmart. Each person contributed their domain expertise.
04
AI-Powered Synthesis
We used AI tools — the same tools we recommend for DaySmart — to synthesize all the intelligence, build this portal, generate strategic analysis, and create presentation materials. This playbook was built in real time.
05
Rehearsal
We built an AI simulation of this conversation and practiced our pitch against it. The team asked tough questions and refined our approach before walking into the room.
The point: Everything you're reading was built using the same approach we propose for Project Nova. AI gathered the intelligence. AI synthesized the analysis. AI built this portal. Humans directed, reviewed, and refined. This process IS the proof that it works.
This Is What $15,000 Gets You
An implementation-ready playbook built around your words, your systems, and your metric. Not a study. Not a slide deck. A battle plan.

Ready to Execute?

Friday's call is the next step. Let's turn this playbook into action.

Kelly Services / Motion Consulting Group

Semper Fidelis — Always Faithful