Our process
How we work - five phases, real timelines, real artifacts
A typical engagement runs 4-6 months: 2 weeks of discovery, 3 weeks of design, 10-14 weeks of build, and 3 weeks of launch support, then 3-6 months on retainer or a clean handoff to your team. Expect about 6-12 hours a week of your time during the active phases.
Visual: process overview
1680 × 560 · /images/how-we-work/overview.png
Discovery
We walk through your concept, current evidence, and constraints. Lock the scope before any design or code.
- Validated problem statement and target user
- Scoped MVP brief (in scope, out of scope, deferred)
- Technical architecture sketch
- Fixed-price quote OR T&M ranges with weekly cap
- Risks and assumptions document
Your commitment
About 6-10 hours total. 3-4 sessions, 90 min each
When we change or skip
If you have no validated demand or no real customer evidence, we will tell you to spend on customer discovery first. We have walked away from engagements at this step.
Design
UX research, UI design, prototyping. We design the operator surface alongside the customer surface, not after.
- Information architecture and key user flows
- High-fidelity Figma designs for all primary screens
- Design system foundation (typography, color, components)
- Clickable prototype for customer-discovery interviews
- Accessibility scope (WCAG 2.2 AA baseline)
Your commitment
About 8-12 hours total. Weekly design reviews, 60-90 min each
When we change or skip
For narrow projects (a feature or single integration), we sometimes skip formal design and jump to build. Our call after discovery, not yours to ask for.
MVP build
Senior-only engineering through to production launch. Weekly written progress reports. Demo every Friday.
- Production codebase deployed to your infrastructure
- Automated test coverage on critical paths
- Internal documentation (architecture, runbooks, deploy guides)
- Operator/admin dashboard if scoped
- Analytics instrumentation and dashboard
- Pre-launch QA report and go-live checklist
Visual: MVP build
760 × 560 · /images/how-we-work/mvp-build.png
Your commitment
About 4-6 hours per week. Weekly status reviews (60 min) + Friday demos (30 min)
When we change or skip
If discovery revealed scope is genuinely fluid and the foundation is not yet settled, we will recommend a 2-3 week paid prototype phase before committing to the full MVP scope.
Launch support
We are present when your first users hit the product. Bug response, analytics review, traffic-pattern learnings.
- 24-hour bug response SLA during launch window
- First-week analytics review with insights
- Performance and reliability monitoring setup
- Customer-support ticket triage assistance if needed
- Post-launch retrospective and v2 recommendations
Visual: Launch support
760 × 560 · /images/how-we-work/launch-support.png
Your commitment
About 3-5 hours per week. Daily standups during launch week, then weekly
When we change or skip
For projects with an existing internal team taking over at launch, this phase reduces to a 1-week hand-off period.
Iteration
Either we continue on retainer for feature work + small fixes, or we hand off cleanly to your internal engineering team.
- Feature backlog prioritized by post-launch data
- Monthly written status reports
- A/B testing framework if scoped
- Internal team knowledge-transfer sessions if handing off
- Open-source repo of internal tooling we built (if any)
Visual: Iteration
760 × 560 · /images/how-we-work/iteration.png
Your commitment
Varies by retainer structure. Bi-weekly check-ins for retainer; daily for handoff weeks
When we change or skip
About 30 percent of our engagements end at launch with a clean handoff; about 60 percent continue 3-6 months on retainer; about 10 percent become longer-term partnerships.
Straight talk
What we do not do
No fake fixed timeline guarantees
The ranges above are honest. A "guaranteed 6-week MVP" is a sales line; real scope decides real timeline.
No mystery scope changes
If reality forces a scope change mid-engagement, we tell you in the next status review, not at the end. Change orders happen, but they are visible early.
No junior pass-through
Every engineer on your engagement has shipped at least three production products. The senior architect on the sales call is on the work, not just the contract.
No "we built it, now you maintain it" with no docs
Internal documentation (architecture, runbooks, deploy guides) is a deliverable, not a hope. We have inherited too many undocumented codebases to ship one ourselves.
No taking work we should not take
If discovery reveals you do not yet have validated demand, or that off-the-shelf solves 80 percent of your workflow, we tell you. Three engagements walked away at the discovery step in 2025; same in 2026 so far.
Sample timeline
What a typical engagement looks like
Kickoff. Discovery sessions begin.
We map your concept, current evidence, and constraints across 3-4 working sessions, then agree on what the MVP must prove before we write a line of code.
Discovery wraps. Scoped brief and quote delivered.
You get a written brief (in scope, out of scope, deferred), a technical architecture sketch, and either a fixed-price quote or T&M ranges with a weekly cap.
Design phase begins. First IA review.
We lock information architecture and the primary user flows together, so the screens that follow are built on a structure you have already signed off on.
Design phase wraps. High-fidelity Figma + prototype delivered.
All primary screens are designed on a reusable design-system foundation, plus a clickable prototype you can put in front of real users for discovery interviews.
Build phase begins. First demo Friday of Week 6.
Senior engineers start on production code immediately, and you see working software every Friday from week six onward, not a status slide.
Build phase wraps. Production deployed.
The product ships to your infrastructure with automated tests on critical paths, internal docs, analytics instrumentation, and a go-live checklist.
Launch support begins. First users hit the product.
We hold a 24-hour bug-response SLA through the launch window and monitor performance and reliability while your first real users come on.
Launch support wraps. Iteration phase begins on retainer OR clean handoff.
A post-launch retrospective and first-week analytics review set the direction: keep shipping on retainer, or transition ownership to your internal team.
Retainer iteration OR internal team owns the product.
On retainer we prioritize the backlog by real usage data; on handoff we run knowledge-transfer sessions so your team owns the codebase with confidence.
These weeks are a typical example, not a fixed guarantee. We commit to real dates only after discovery locks your scope. See “No fake fixed timeline guarantees” above.
Related pages
Ready to start a discovery call?
No sales pitch. 30-45 minutes on your concept, current evidence, and constraints. You leave with a scoped path forward whether or not you engage us.