How we work
Six phases, and what you get out of each
No mystery and no black box. Here is exactly how a project runs with us, what it produces, and roughly how long each part takes.
Discovery
1–3 weeksFrom £1,500We map the process before pricing the build.
We sit with the people doing the work and document what actually happens — including the undocumented spreadsheet everything depends on. It ends in a written specification, an architecture outline and a fixed build quote. It is yours to keep even if you take it elsewhere, and it regularly concludes that you need less software than you thought.
You receive
- Written specification
- Architecture outline
- Fixed-price build quote
- Risk register
Information architecture
3–5 daysURL structure and navigation decided before design.
For anything with pages, we settle URLs, hierarchy and internal linking first — because changing structure after design is where redesigns overrun. Where a site already exists, this is also where we inventory every indexed URL so nothing gets orphaned at launch.
You receive
- Sitemap and URL plan
- Internal link map
- Redirect inventory for existing URLs
Design
2–4 weeksA system, not a folder of screens.
Interface design as reusable tokens and components rather than one-off pages, reviewed on real devices at phone width first. Accessibility is checked here — contrast, focus order, target sizes — because fixing it in design is cheap and fixing it in audit is not.
You receive
- Design system in Figma
- Key templates
- Annotated states and edge cases
Build
4–16 weeksTwo-week cycles, each ending in something you can use.
Every cycle ends with working software on a staging URL you can click through on your own devices. Not a status report and not a percentage. It is the only dependable way to catch a misunderstanding while it is still cheap to fix.
You receive
- Weekly staging builds
- Automated tests on critical paths
- Architecture decision records
Launch
3–5 daysMonitored cutover with a rollback ready.
Pre-launch technical audit, full redirect map verified against the old URL inventory, performance benchmarked against the site being replaced, then a monitored cutover. We keep a rollback path until we are confident, and we watch Search Console daily for the first month.
You receive
- Verified redirect map
- Performance benchmark
- Rollback plan
- Search Console monitoring
Support
Ongoing30 days included, then an optional care plan.
Thirty days of fixes for anything not working as scoped, included. After that an optional plan covering updates, monitoring, backups and an agreed response time. You are not obliged to take it, and you get documentation either way.
You receive
- 30 days included fixes
- Handover documentation
- Optional care plan
Process questions
More on cost and ownership in our Q&A.
Because a fixed price produced without understanding your process is a guess, and someone always pays for a bad guess — usually you, through change requests. An agency that does discovery free has to recover the cost elsewhere: in the build price, or by not really doing it.
Content or approval of copy we write, consolidated feedback on a weekly cycle, and one person who can make decisions. Projects overrun through slow approvals far more often than through slow development.
We re-quote in writing before doing the work, so you decide with the cost in front of you. What we will not do is absorb it silently and present a larger invoice later, or refuse a sensible change because it was not in the original document.
Yes. Discovery is a standalone deliverable and each build phase is a defined commitment. If you want to pause after discovery, or take the specification to another agency, that is a legitimate outcome and it happens.
Start with a conversation, not a contract
A 30-minute call costs nothing and usually tells you more than a proposal would.
Book a call