New brand. New product line. New business unit. Or a foundation that's run out of road. We start with strategy, stay through launch, and don't disappear after.
If you're in one of them, you're in the right place. If you're not sure, a Platform Health Check is the honest first step.
Not sure which door you're standing in? That's what the Health Check is for.
Every build is bespoke; the shape is consistent. Each phase ends with an explicit decision point — for both sides. You're never locked into a number based on incomplete information.
Stakeholder interviews, technical discovery, competitive review, content audit, integration mapping, and a clear-eyed view of where the existing systems are and where they need to go. This phase stands alone. If we decide we're not the right partner, you keep everything we produced.
Information architecture, content modeling, design system, prototype-to-spec, and detailed technical architecture. Design and architecture aren't separate phases handed off between teams — they're the same conversation, run in parallel by the people who'll build it.
Engineering, integration, content migration, accessibility audit, performance optimization, and pre-launch QA. Run as cycles with weekly demos so you see what's shipping as it ships — not at a big-bang reveal in month five.
Launch readiness, deployment, monitoring, and the first thirty to sixty days of post-launch support. The team that built it is the team that runs it. Then you transition into an Embedded Platform Care retainer — same pod, no rediscovery period.
Same operating model regardless of size — a named team, one accountability line, and documentation as a deliverable.
The range is wide because the work is wide. Phase 1 stands alone — you commit to strategy, not the whole build, until we both have the information to scope it honestly.
Lump-sum quotes for builds force agencies to either pad the number (to cover unknowns) or underbid and renegotiate later (via change orders, when you have the least leverage). Neither is honest.
Phasing means the budget catches up with reality as we learn. Phase 1 is fixed-price and standalone. Phase 2 is quoted at the end of Phase 1, when we both know what the build actually is. If the strategy phase tells us the build is bigger or smaller than originally thought, we recalibrate before Phase 2 — not in month four.
You can leave at any phase boundary and keep everything we produced. That's the deal.
Sometimes "we need a new platform" turns out to mean something else. We'll tell you when it does.
A Health Check or Enhancement Sprint can sometimes solve the problem at a tenth of the cost and a sixth of the timeline. We've talked teams out of replatforms more than once. It's part of the job.
If you're in one of these, we know good people who do that work — and we'll happily make introductions.
Almost every build transitions into an Embedded Platform Care retainer. The team that built the platform is the team that runs it. No handoff, no rediscovery, no "let's get to know your stack" period — they already know.
This is the part most agencies don't do well. Build engagements without a maintenance plan tend to drift, then break, then get rebuilt by someone else two years later. We'd rather be the team still running it five years on.
See Embedded Platform CareA sample of build and replatform engagements across B2B manufacturing, mission-driven organizations, and multi-region commerce.
Most of these started with a Platform Health Check.
Start a real conversation
You'll talk to a strategist or an engineer who'll be part of the team if we work together. Not a BDR. Not a sales engineer.