What can we build for you? What can we build for you? Software An application that does something. Internal tools, customer portals, dashboards, calculators, systems that need to talk to other systems. A website A site people visit. Marketing sites, content sites, ecommerce, anything where the page is the product. Automation Work that happens without anyone doing it. Data moving between systems, documents generated, notifications sent, manual steps removed. Something else, or more than one of these Most real projects are a combination. Tell us what you have in mind.
Tell us what you have in mind
Where does the project stand? Where does the project stand? Every project starts somewhere. Some arrive with a stack of specifications. Most arrive with an idea and a deadline. Neither one is better. We ask because it changes what the first phase has to accomplish, and we would rather find that out now than in week six.
Strategy Why this project exists and what it has to accomplish.
1 We know something needs to change. The specifics are open. 2 We agree on the goals. We have not agreed on how to measure them. 3 Objectives, audiences and success measures are documented and approved.
Someone else is responsible for this
Structure How the thing is organized. Sections, flows, data and how someone gets from one place to another.
1 Not started. 2 We have a rough map, or we have the old one and we know it is wrong. 3 Sitemap, user flows and data model are documented.
Someone else is responsible for this
Design What it looks like and how it feels to use.
1 Nothing yet, or brand assets only. 2 We have a brand system and some direction. No screens designed. 3 Approved designs exist for every screen we need.
Someone else is responsible for this
Content The words, images, video and data that go in it.
1 Little of it exists, and we have not settled who would produce it. 2 Some of it exists. What we have needs rewriting, reshooting, or reorganizing, and some of it we do not have at all. 3 Copy is written, images and video are produced, data is clean and all of it is approved.
Someone else is responsible for this
Technology The platform, the integrations, the hosting and what has to connect to what.
1 Open. We would want a recommendation. 2 We know the platform. The integrations are not mapped. 3 Platform, integrations and environments are decided and documented.
Someone else is responsible for this
After it launches After it launches Launch is the start of the cost, not the end of it. Tell us what you expect to need.
Keep it running Security patches, dependency updates and platform upgrades. The work that keeps software from aging out from under you. Keep it running and make it better All of the above, plus measurement and steady improvement to what already exists. Keep it running, make it better and keep building All of the above, plus new capability. We bring ideas, test them and build the ones that work. We will not need ongoing support
One thing before you move on. Software does not hold still. The frameworks and libraries underneath any modern site ship security patches continuously, and a site that stops taking them accumulates known vulnerabilities inside of a year. Platforms drop support for older versions on their own schedule, not yours. The work does not disappear when nobody is assigned to it. It arrives later, usually as an emergency, and costs more.
Plenty of organizations handle this in-house and it works. If yours does, tell us who, so we can plan the handoff and build for the team that inherits it.