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00Method

Four stages, and you sign off the end of each one.

Most agencies show you a process diagram. The useful questions are narrower: what actually happens in each stage, what you are holding at the end of it, what it needs from your team, and what has to be signed before the next stage starts. This page answers those four for all four stages.

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01The shape of it

The stages are separated by sign-offs, not by invoices.

Each stage ends with something specific being agreed. Until it is, the next one does not start. That is what stops a job quietly turning into a different, more expensive job.

01

Understand2–3 weeks

You sign offMap agreed

02

Agree the plan1–2 weeks

You sign offPlan signed

03

Design and build6–12 weeks for a first release

You sign offChecklist clear

04

Launch and improveLaunch week, then an agreed period after it

After the improvement period, we either carry on by agreement or hand the whole thing over to your team. It does not simply stop being anybody's job.

The times are typical for a first release and are confirmed in the proposal at the end of stage two. A bigger programme runs the same four stages once per release, rather than one long stage of each.

02The stages

Each stage, in the detail you would want before signing.

The same four headings every time: what happens, what you get, what we need from you, and what has to be signed off before the next stage begins.

  1. 01

    Typical2–3 weeks

    Understand

    We find out how the business actually runs, which is never how the diagram says it runs.

    What happens

    1. 01We sit with the people doing the job — whoever answers the phone, quotes the work, does the work and chases the invoice. Not just the person who hired us.
    2. 02We follow one real enquiry from the first phone call to the paid invoice, and write down every point where it stops, gets retyped or gets lost.
    3. 03We list every piece of software you pay for: who has the login, what is inside it, and which ones already talk to each other.
    4. 04We ask what the next twelve months have to bring in, and where the money is being won and lost right now.

    What you get at the end

    • A map of what happens to an enquiry today, and every system it passes through.
    • A written list of the problems worth fixing, with what each one is costing you now.
    • Whatever is going to get in the way, said plainly: contracts, licences, people, rules.

    What we need from you

    • About 45 minutes each with six to ten people who do the work.
    • A look inside the systems — either read-only logins or somebody to share their screen.
    • One person who can settle it when two departments disagree.

    Before we plan anything

    You read the map and confirm it is right. If the map is wrong, everything built on top of it is wrong, and finding that out in month four costs many times what it costs to find out now.

  2. 02

    Typical1–2 weeks

    Agree the plan

    We agree exactly what gets built first, what it will do, and how we will both know whether it worked.

    What happens

    1. 01We cut the first release down to something that can go live in weeks and start paying for itself, rather than a twelve-month programme.
    2. 02We draw how it fits together: what your customers see, what your team uses, and what has to talk to what behind it.
    3. 03We agree what we are counting — enquiries, quotes sent, jobs booked, hours saved — and who looks at those numbers each month.
    4. 04We write down what we are not doing, so it gets argued about now instead of in week nine.
    5. 05You get a plan with dates on it and a written proposal with a price.

    What you get at the end

    • A written scope for the first release, in your words, and a list of what counts as finished.
    • A drawing of how it all connects, which you can hand to your own IT person or supplier.
    • An agreed definition of what success looks like, and the numbers behind it.
    • A plan with dates, a name against each job, and the things that could move them.

    What we need from you

    • A decision on priorities from whoever controls the budget.
    • A named person on your side for words, photographs, data and approvals.
    • Anything awkward we do not know about yet — a supplier contract, a system being replaced, someone internally who will object.

    Before anyone starts building

    You sign the scope, the numbers we are measuring and the price. Agreeing scope late is the single most expensive thing that happens in work like this, so it goes in writing before a design file is opened.

  3. 03

    Typical6–12 weeks for a first release

    Design and build

    The same people design it, build it, write it and connect it — and you can look at it any day of the week.

    What happens

    1. 01Design happens in the browser, at real sizes, with your real words. Not flat pictures signed off in a meeting and reinterpreted later.
    2. 02From the first week the site sits on a private web address. You can open it whenever you like and see exactly how far it has got.
    3. 03Words, photographs and data move across while the build is happening, instead of in a panic afterwards.
    4. 04Connections to your other software are built and tested against your own accounts, and every permission you grant is written down as it is granted.
    5. 05Speed, phones and screen readers are checked as each part lands, not in the week before launch.

    What you get at the end

    • The site on a private address, with a log of what changed and when.
    • Your other software connected and tested against your own accounts.
    • The words and pictures in place, moved across from the old site and checked.
    • A written record of every decision and the reason for it.
    • A launch checklist with a name against every line.

    What we need from you

    • Comments back within two working days. This is the single biggest reason dates hold or slip.
    • Words, photographs, and somebody who can get us into each of your other systems.
    • One person who gives the final answer, rather than five people with five opinions.

    Before it goes live

    We launch when the checklist is clear and you have signed it, not because the date has arrived. If something is not ready we will say so and move the date.

  4. 04

    TypicalLaunch week, then an agreed period after it

    Launch and improve

    We go live carefully, switch everything on, then change things based on what people actually do.

    What happens

    1. 01Launch is planned in advance: the domain, redirects from every old page, and a way to put the old site back within minutes if anything goes wrong.
    2. 02The connections to your other software are switched on, with permissions and who-calls-who written down.
    3. 03Reporting is working before the first visitor arrives, not bolted on a month later.
    4. 04We deliberately watch for a few weeks before changing anything, so the changes come from what people do rather than what anyone thinks.
    5. 05We rank the improvements with you, from what the numbers show.

    What you get at the end

    • The live site, connected, with a written record of what has access to what.
    • Reporting against the numbers agreed in stage two, somewhere you will actually look at it.
    • Written handover and training for the people who have to run it.
    • A ranked list of improvements, with the reason attached to each one.

    What we need from you

    • A named person inside your business who owns the live site.
    • That person, and whoever controls the domain name, available during launch week.
    • A decision on what happens when the agreed improvement period ends.

    This stage does not close

    It either carries on as an agreed support arrangement or hands over completely to your team. Both are fine endings, and we will tell you which one we think is right for you.

03Always true

Five things that do not change between stages.

A way of working is only worth anything if it holds when the job gets difficult. These are the parts we will not renegotiate halfway through.

01The people you meet build it
Whoever sits in the first meeting is whoever does the work. You are not sold to by one team and handed to another once the contract is signed.
02Decisions are written down
Every decision that changes the shape or the price of the work is written down with its reason, somewhere you can still find it a year later.
03One team, one person accountable
The planning, the design, the building, the words and the connecting are done by the same team, so nothing falls down the gap between two suppliers.
04You own everything
Accounts, code, words, data and documentation are in your name from day one. Nothing is held hostage in ours.
05We will tell you when something is not worth doing
Including when it was our idea. An agency that never talks you out of anything is selling you hours.

04What goes wrong

Three things that derail jobs like this, and what we do about each.

None of them are technical. It is the same three every time, and an agency that does not name them has not run enough projects.

Nobody can decide

Comments come back from five people who disagree with each other, and the build stops while everyone waits for a verdict.

One person is named as the decider in stage two. Conflicting comments go back to them in writing, with what the delay is costing attached.

The words never arrive

The site is finished, then waits three months for copy, photographs or product details nobody was given time to produce.

Words and pictures are scoped, assigned and dated in stage two and treated as a delivery with a name against it. We will write the first draft ourselves if that is faster.

Nobody can get into the other system

A connection is blocked by a licence that does not include it, a permission nobody has, or a supplier who does not answer email.

Access is asked for in stage one and proven in stage two, so it is not discovered in week six of the build.

05Money

We quote after stage one, not before it.

Stage one is what produces something worth quoting against. A number given before that is a guess, and the guess is always in the agency's favour. What you should expect from a first conversation is a straight answer on whether this is worth doing at all.

Placeholder — for Remedium to complete

Fees, payment terms, the smallest job worth taking on, contract length and what support costs after stage four are commercial decisions this page has deliberately not invented. Replace this block with the real numbers.

The stage lengths quoted above are indicative and should be checked against how Remedium actually schedules work before this page goes live.

06Start

Stage one starts with a conversation, not a proposal.

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