How we work
How we work
Three phases. One team. Built and maintained, not built and left.
Build
Weeks one through twelve. Custom systems designed, built, and shipped.
The rhythm
The Build stage opens with a paid diagnostic week if the scope isn't already locked, then moves into a working cadence of weekly sessions plus async progress between. Each week has a working session, a written update, and a checkpoint at the end. The client sees progress in a shared environment from week two onward, not at a big reveal moment. Decisions get made in the working sessions and documented immediately. Scope changes get costed and resequenced in writing. By week eight or so, the surface is functional; the last weeks are polish, performance tuning, and the soft launch sequence.
What you'll have at the end
A shipped surface running on production infrastructure. Documentation covering the architecture, the design system, the content patterns, and the operating runbook. A handover meeting with the team that will own it day to day, or a transition into the Maintain stage. Analytics wired in from day one.
Touchpoints
- Weekly working session with DOT
- Shared dashboard showing live build progress
- Async written updates between sessions
- Decision log written and shared in real time
- Direct line to DOT for anything between scheduled touchpoints
Grow
Weeks twelve and beyond. The work that finds and keeps the audience.
The rhythm
The Grow stage runs at a monthly cadence with weekly check-ins inside heavy production windows. The first ninety days after launch are the highest-leverage period; we treat them that way. SEO foundation work runs in parallel with content production, launch sequencing, and lifecycle email setup. Reporting is monthly with a written read-out, not a dashboard the client has to interpret. By month six, the work that earns its place stays and the work that doesn't gets cut.
What you'll have at the end
A measurable lift across the channels the engagement targets. Search rankings on the keywords that matter to the business. A content engine producing at the rhythm the team can sustain. Email sequences earning their place in the lifecycle. A launch that compounded instead of decaying.
Touchpoints
- Monthly working session with DOT
- Weekly check-ins during heavy production
- Written monthly read-out with what worked and what didn't
- Quarterly strategic review covering the next quarter's shape
- Direct line to DOT, same as Build
Maintain
Month six onward. The stage where the work compounds.
The rhythm
Maintain is the partnership stage. Monthly retainer engagement covering feature work, design iteration, content production, performance and reliability, and the strategic conversations that come up when the business changes. The cadence is monthly working sessions plus async between, with weekly check-ins during heavy windows and quiet stretches when the business is in maintenance mode. The retainer scales up and down with the work. Most clients stay in Maintain longer than they stayed in Build.
What you'll have at the end
There isn't an end. That's the point of this stage. The system improves quarter over quarter, the firm running it doesn't reset every year, and the institutional memory stays with the people who built it.
Touchpoints
- Monthly working session with DOT
- Weekly check-ins during feature work
- Quarterly strategic review
- 24-hour written response window on day-to-day
- On-call response for production incidents inside the engagement tier
The point of the rhythm.
The rhythm matters because the work compounds across stages, not within them. A Build that ships well but hands off to a stranger loses half its value in the first year. A Grow phase that runs on heroics burns out the team and the system together. The Maintain stage is where the institutional knowledge stays put long enough to actually pay back the original investment.
Build-and-stay is how most of the clients we work with end up working with us. Not because we lock anyone in, but because the math works. The compounding shows up around month eighteen, and by then the relationship is doing the work that no first-year engagement can do. That's where the work earns its name.