03 · Process

Every stage ends in an artefact you own.

Every agency will give you a status call. We would rather give you something you can take elsewhere, whether or not you carry on with us. If an engagement ends after stage one, you still leave with a system diagram and a costed plan that another firm can execute.

  1. 01

    Discovery and architecture

    We map the system as it actually is, which is usually not the system anybody describes. That gap is where most of the schedule risk lives.

    The output is a diagram you can hand to another firm, a register of the risks nobody had written down, and a cost envelope with the assumptions behind each number visible.

    1 to 2 weeks System diagram, risk register, cost envelope One architect, one engineer part time
  2. 02

    Design and prototype

    Flows resolved against real data rather than placeholder content, because the shape of real data is what breaks designs.

    Tested with the people who will use it, not with people who resemble them. For internal tools that means your staff, on a call, doing their actual job.

    2 to 4 weeks Clickable prototype, design tokens One designer, one engineer, your product owner
  3. 03

    Build

    Two week increments, each one deployable rather than demoable. The distinction is whether it could go to production on the Friday without a discussion.

    Your engineers get commit access on day one rather than at handover. If that is uncomfortable, it is worth discussing why before we start rather than after.

    6 to 10 weeks Production release, pipeline, runbook Two to four engineers, designer part time
  4. 04

    Harden

    Load, security and compliance work before launch rather than after the first incident. This is the stage most often cut, and cutting it is how a launch becomes a rollback.

    The data processing pack exists so your client’s vendor review does not stall for three weeks while somebody writes it from memory.

    1 to 2 weeks Load tests, security review, data processing pack One engineer, one architect
  5. 05

    Operate

    We carry the pager alongside your team until your team wants it back. Some clients never take it, and that is a legitimate end state rather than a failure.

    Thirty days notice, both directions. The exit is written into the start so that neither side is negotiating under pressure later.

    Ongoing Service dashboard, on-call rotation Rotating, at least two people who built it