Process
Nine stages, and what each one owes you
Projects rarely fail because of code. They fail because nobody wrote down what was in scope, who was deciding, and what happens when something changes. Each stage below has a defined output and a defined thing I need from you.
Ground rule
Discovery before pricing
A price quoted before the scope is understood is wrong in one direction or the other. Discovery comes first, always.
Ground rule
Scope in writing
You sign off on a written scope with an explicit out-of-scope list. Both halves matter equally.
Ground rule
Changes are quoted
Not silently absorbed, which ends in a rushed delivery, and not silently dropped, which ends in a launch missing something you assumed.
- 01
Discovery
3–5 daysBefore anything is estimated, we establish what the software has to do, who it is for, and what makes it a failure. Most bad projects were mis-scoped, not badly coded.
What you get
- A written problem statement we both signed off on
- Constraints made explicit: budget, deadline, existing systems, team skills
- A recommendation on stack, with the tradeoff stated in plain language
- A fixed-scope proposal with a price, not an hourly guess
What I need from you
Two hours of your time and access to whoever actually understands the business rules.
- 02
Planning & wireframing
3–7 daysScreens and data model are decided on paper, where changing your mind is free. Every screen is mapped to the data it needs and the actions it allows.
What you get
- Low-fidelity wireframes for every screen in scope
- Data model and API surface sketched before implementation
- A build order that puts the riskiest thing first
- An explicit out-of-scope list
What I need from you
One review pass with real objections. Silence at this stage costs money later.
- 03
Design
1–2 weeksA design system rather than a set of pictures — tokens, type scale, spacing, states. Components are designed with their loading, empty and error states, because those are most of what users actually see.
What you get
- Design tokens: colour, type scale, spacing, radii, motion
- Component states designed, including empty and error
- Accessibility checked at design time — WCAG AA contrast, focus treatment
- Responsive behaviour defined at 360, 390, 768, 1024 and 1440px
What I need from you
Brand assets if they exist. If they do not, we make defensible choices and move on.
- 04
MVP
2–3 weeksThe thinnest version that a real user can complete a real task on, deployed somewhere you can open on your phone. Not a demo — a deployment.
What you get
- A working deployment on a preview URL from the first week
- The single most valuable user journey, working end to end
- Early feedback while changing direction is still cheap
What I need from you
Use it. Genuinely use it, on your own phone, and tell me what is wrong.
- 05
Development
3–10 weeksFull build in increments, each one merged behind a passing pipeline. You see progress on a preview URL continuously rather than at a milestone meeting.
What you get
- Weekly increments, each deployed and reviewable
- Every change through CI: lint, typecheck, tests, build, performance budget
- Conventional commits, so the history is a readable record
- A running list of decisions and why they were made
What I need from you
A weekly review and quick answers when a business rule turns out to be ambiguous.
- 06
QA & security review
3–5 daysCross-device testing, accessibility audit and a pass against the OWASP Top 10 before anything is called done — not after a user finds it.
What you get
- Tested at 360, 390, 768, 1024 and 1440px on real devices
- Keyboard navigation and screen-reader pass; WCAG AA contrast verified
- OWASP Top 10 review of every route that accepts input
- Dependency audit with high and critical findings resolved
- Lighthouse scores against the agreed budget
What I need from you
Sign-off on the findings list — including anything you decide to accept rather than fix.
- 07
Deployment
1–2 daysProduction release through the same pipeline that has been running all along. Nothing about launch day should be novel.
What you get
- Production deploy from the pipeline, not from a laptop
- Security headers, TLS, caching and redirects verified in production
- Analytics and error reporting live before traffic arrives
- sitemap.xml and robots.txt verified and submitted
What I need from you
DNS access, or an hour with whoever holds it. Domain purchase stays in your name.
- 08
Handoff
2–3 daysYou leave with a codebase your next developer can pick up without calling me. That is the test of whether handoff was done properly.
What you get
- Repository in your organisation, with full history
- README that gets a new developer running locally in under fifteen minutes
- Architecture notes and the decision log
- Credentials transferred to your accounts, mine revoked
- A recorded walkthrough of the admin surfaces
What I need from you
Somewhere to transfer ownership to — your GitHub organisation and hosting accounts.
- 09
Maintenance
Ongoing, optionalSoftware rots even when nobody touches it: dependencies get CVEs, platforms deprecate APIs, mobile OS releases break things every year. A retainer covers that. Not taking one is a legitimate choice — you just make it knowingly.
What you get
- Dependency and security patching on a defined cadence
- Platform and OS-release compatibility work
- Monitoring and an agreed response time for incidents
- A budgeted allowance for small changes each month
What I need from you
A decision, either way. Undecided is the expensive option.
Start at stage one
Discovery is three to five days and ends with a written problem statement, a stack recommendation and a fixed-scope proposal. You keep all of it whether or not we continue.