How we work

From intake to live.

Every engagement runs on the same backbone: a focused intake, a tight build window, and a system we put live and run for you at the end.

Phases

The build window

  1. Phase 01

    Intake

    60 minutes · free

    We spend an hour listening to your workflow, your goals, and what hasn't worked. By the end we either suggest an engagement that fits or part as friends. No slides, no sales pressure, no follow-up emails for a year.

  2. Phase 02

    Scope

    1–3 days

    A written scope of work — exactly what gets built, what doesn't, the timeline, the price. You review, edit, or push back. Nothing starts until both sides have signed off and the upfront deposit is in.

  3. Phase 03

    Foundation

    Week 1

    The project skeleton goes up: design system, repository, hosting, custom domain, accounts. By the end of the week, you can see something running. We meet briefly to confirm the direction feels right.

  4. Phase 04

    Build sprints

    Weeks 2 onward

    Focused build with a weekly Monday check-in. Each sprint ships a visible piece of the system; you see and use it, give feedback, we tighten before moving on. Out-of-scope ideas are noted and quoted separately rather than absorbed silently.

  5. Phase 05

    Polish

    Final week

    Cross-browser pass on real Safari and a real iPhone. Accessibility scan. Performance tuning. Security review. Every detail double-checked against the doctrine before launch.

  6. Phase 06

    Launch

    Final day

    We put your system live on our infrastructure, wire your custom domain, and walk you through it. Your data exports anytime. Support continues with your subscription.

Phases

From intake to live.

Working principles

Five rules every engagement runs on.

Direct contact

You talk to the person doing the work. No account managers, no offshore hand-off, no support tickets to a queue.

Fixed scope, fixed price

Out-of-scope is a Change Request with explicit pricing — quoted before any work is done, never silently absorbed.

Your data is always yours

Export your data anytime, during the subscription and if you ever leave. We host and run the system; you're never locked in.

Weekly cadence

Active engagements get a Monday update: what shipped, what's next, anything that needs your decision. No surprises mid-week.

Built for the long run

Every choice — stack, structure, hosting, design — is made to last beyond the engagement. Maintainability matters more than novelty.

Launch

What launch looks like

When the build is done, we put it live on our infrastructure, walk you through it, and you're running — with your data exportable anytime. No setup left for you, no surprise dependencies.

Read disclosures →

Ready

Ready to scope an engagement?

A free 60-minute intake gets you a clear recommendation and no obligation.

Process · SPAO Systems · SPAO Systems