Decide what business data a custom or open-source system must keep, who controls it, and how the team can export or recover it.
Before choosing a database brand, name the records your business relies on and the rules those records must keep. A quick prototype can defer this until customers and staff are already depending on the data.
You will ask about relationships, permissions, validation, migration, deletion, export, backups, and restore in language an implementer can answer.
The result is a data and recovery record that can travel with the business if a tool or supplier changes.
We use this guide in Brownsmith's own team training. The tools are available to anyone; the creative work is choosing what fits the problem and knowing how to judge the result.
Non-technical founders working with consultants, developers, agencies, freelancers, or AI coding agents.
No engineering experience is required. Bring a product idea, proposal, or existing software decision to examine.
Put the guide to work
Describe the records your business must keep and how you would leave the system before choosing a database product. Make the product's important records, relationships, ownership, and recovery promises explicit.
Illustrative product or service: A lightweight CRM for a two-person sales team
Continue the decision path
Brief a builder or coding agent, review the hidden system as well as the interface, and accept the result with repeatable tests.