A website with us takes about four weeks and moves through four phases: discovery, design, build, then launch. The order stays the same on every project, so you always know what’s happening this week, what comes next, and what we need from you to keep it moving.
Most of the rework we see in website projects comes from two things. Design that starts before anyone has agreed what the site is for. Or a build that starts before the design is settled. Running the phases in sequence heads off both, because each phase answers a set of questions before the next one begins.
Here’s the whole thing.
The four phases
Discovery — Days 1 to 3. A working session to understand your business, your customers, and what the site has to do. We map the structure and the messaging before anyone opens a design tool. Read the Discovery note →
Design — Days 4 to 12. We design a system for your offer: pages, components, and hierarchy that fit what you sell. You review all of it before we write a line of code. Read the Design note →
Build — Days 12 to 22. We build the design in clean code, with fast load times, SEO, and structured data set up properly. You get a staging link and rounds of feedback. Read the Build note →
Launch — Days 22 to 28. We run a fifteen-point pre-launch checklist, then handle deployment, domain, and final QA. Two weeks of support are included once you’re live. Read the Launch note →
Why the order matters
Discovery comes first because a good-looking site that says the wrong thing still fails to convert. Three days deciding what each page argues saves weeks of redesign later.
Design comes before build for a plain reason of cost. A layout change takes an hour in a design file and a day in code. We settle every decision while it’s still cheap to change.
Build comes before launch because a site that runs on the designer’s screen still has to work on a five-year-old phone, in a screen reader, and for an answer engine reading it aloud. The checklist is where we prove it does.
Copy runs through all four phases. We write the words as part of design rather than pouring them in at the end, because the words are most of what a visitor actually reads. The copywriting note covers how we handle that.
What we need from you
Three things, and they’re what keeps a project on schedule:
- One person who can make decisions. A name, not a committee.
- Feedback on time at the two review points, in Design and in Build.
- Your real content: logos, product shots, any copy you already have.
With those in place, four weeks is comfortable. When a project slips, it’s almost always waiting on a login, a photo, or a sign-off.
Ready to start? Tell us about your project.
Quick recall
How long does a site take? About four weeks: discovery, design, build, launch.
Why work in phases? Each phase settles its questions before the next starts, which is how you avoid rework.
Why design before build? A change costs an hour in a design file and a day in code.
What keeps it on time? One decision-maker, feedback on time, and your real content ready.
Written by 4080 Studio.
