Process
A vague process is a red flag to a contractor, and rightly so. Here is the whole thing: five phases, what we deliver, what we need from you, what it costs when that is late, and how change orders work.
Phases
The dependencies are the point. Every phase has something we need from you before it can close, and that is where projects slip.
01
1 week
Segment, service area, bid-versus-lead mix, recruitment pressure. We inventory the certifications, safety statistics and project proof you already own — which is almost always more than you think.
What we need from you
Deliverable
Discovery brief, sitemap, keyword map
02
1–2 weeks
Silos by service, sector and location. The project template gets designed here, along with the careers pathway and the capability profile. Nothing gets written until the structure is agreed.
What we need from you
Deliverable
Approved sitemap, wireframes, content plan
03
2–4 weeks
Page designs and the copy that fills them, produced together rather than in sequence. Design without content is decoration; content without design is a document.
What we need from you
Deliverable
Designed pages, written copy, one revision round included
04
2–3 weeks
Mobile-first markup, schema, a hard speed budget, forms wired to your CRM, accessibility to WCAG 2.1 AA. Built on staging where you can see it as it happens.
What we need from you
Deliverable
Staging site, QA report, PageSpeed and accessibility results
05
1 week
DNS cutover, redirects mapped from every old URL, analytics and conversion tracking verified, Search Console submitted. Then training so you can run it yourself.
What we need from you
Deliverable
Live site, redirect map, training recording, documentation
What causes delays
Nine builds out of ten that run long, run long for the same reason: we are waiting on project photography and certification documents. Everything else is schedulable. This is not.
If you do not have usable photographs, say so in week one and budget a half-day with a photographer at an active site. It costs less than most people expect, and the images pay for themselves across the website, proposals and recruiting.
Change orders
Timeline
| Phase | Foundation | Growth | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | 1 week | 1 week | 1–2 weeks |
| Architecture | 1 week | 2 weeks | 2–3 weeks |
| Design & content | 2 weeks | 3–4 weeks | 5–7 weeks |
| Build | 1–2 weeks | 2–3 weeks | 4–6 weeks |
| Launch & handover | 1 week | 1 week | 1–2 weeks |
| Total | 6–7 weeks | 9–11 weeks | 13–20 weeks |
These assume feedback within three business days and photographs available by the end of phase two. They are the schedule we plan to; they are not a guarantee, and we will tell you the day anything moves.
Sometimes possible, usually by cutting scope rather than compressing phases. If you have a bid or a trade show driving the date, tell us in the first call and we will build the plan backwards from it — often launching a smaller site on time and adding to it after.
One person, throughout. You will not be handed between an account manager, a designer and a developer, and you will not have to re-explain your delivery methods to each of them.
Around eight to twelve hours total across the project for a standard build: the discovery call, feedback rounds, gathering documents and handover training. The photography gathering is the part people underestimate.
You see design directions before full pages are built, precisely so that a fundamental disagreement surfaces in week three rather than week eight. If we are still not aligned after the first revision round, we would rather have that conversation than build something you resent.
Happily, and it usually makes the project faster. We will agree who owns what in discovery so nobody is duplicating work or waiting on the other.
Forty-five minutes, no charge, no deck. We ask about your sectors, your bid-versus-lead mix and your hiring pressure, and you get a straight read on what is worth doing.
