Strategy before pixels.
Design before strategy is decoration. Visual work doesn’t start until the strategic foundation is written, reviewed, and signed.
Claritect / Process
Five stages. Three gates.
Then it ships.
Every stage produces signed milestones. Every gate is a hard stop. Nothing moves on assumption, and no design work begins until the strategy is signed.
At A Glance
The flow at a glance
- 01 Discovery
- 02 Strategy
- 03 Design
- 04 Build
- 05 Launch
Diamond marks a gate. A signed approval that must clear before the next stage starts.
How The Engagement Holds
Signoff at every gate.
No stage advances on assumption. Each gate produces a signed deliverable. Then, and only then, we move forward.
Engagements end cleanly.
Concludes 30 days after launch, when the bug-fix window closes. You own everything produced. Optimization is separate.
Stage By Stage
The five stages
Each stage exists for one reason: to make sure the next stage is built on something approved in writing, not on momentum, opinion, or an unstated assumption.
Five stages. Three gates. Every stage produces a signed milestone before the next one starts.
Discovery
Surface the real problem before anything is designed.
- Brand Assessment OUTPUT: PERSONALIZED READ
You complete a five-question Brand Assessment. We return a personalized read within one business day.
- Discovery Session OUTPUT: RECORDED SESSION
A structured 30 to 60 minute conversation, recorded and documented.
- Statement of Work Signed GATE 1
Deal Frame accepted, Statement of Work signed, 50% deposit cleared. No work begins before it does.
Strategy
Turn discovery into a signed Blueprint.
- Clarity Session OUTPUT: TRUTH MAP
A structured working session that goes past the assessment: brand foundation, voice, and constraints extracted as they are, not as they get described in meetings.
- Strategy Document OUTPUT: STRATEGY DOCUMENT
Positioning, messaging framework, persona profiles, buying process, conversion architecture, sitemap and information architecture, content strategy, tech recommendations, measurement plan, and an explicit assumptions log.
- Review & Revision OUTPUT: REVISED DRAFT
You read it. You push back. We revise. We agree. Nothing advances on momentum or an unstated assumption.
- Strategy Signed Off GATE 2
The single most important gate in the engagement, and the one most likely to save you from paying twice for the same project. Design does not start until this clears.
Design
Design on the signed strategy, never on opinion.
- Wireframes & Copy OUTPUT: WIREFRAMES + COPY
Structure for every page with the full copy written in. We agree on what each page does and where every conversion moment lives before anyone argues about colors.
- Visual Design OUTPUT: DESIGN FILES
High-fidelity visual design for every page, every state, every interaction. Built to make the strategy more obvious, never to distract from it.
Build
Engineer the approved design and prove it works.
- Engineering OUTPUT: STAGING ENVIRONMENT
Production build on a platform that fits your stack. Performance, accessibility, and mobile parity ship as part of the work, not as an upsell.
- QA OUTPUT: QA PASS
Cross-browser and real-device testing. Forms, analytics, and conversion events verified end to end. Anything that does not pass goes back before cutover.
Launch
Clear the gate, ship it, hand it over.
- Launch Approval GATE 3
The final signoff. Everything produced to this point is reviewed and approved in writing before the site goes live.
- Cutover & Handoff OUTPUT: LIVE SITE + HANDOFF
DNS cutover, analytics live, baseline measurements captured. Full credentials, full source, full documentation.
- Bug-Fix Window OUTPUT: 30 DAYS POST-LAUNCH
Thirty days of post-launch fixes. The engagement concludes when the window closes; you own everything produced.
What We Need From You
For this to work, the process needs you in it.
We’re not a vendor you brief and leave alone. Five things keep the engagement honest and moving.
AT SIGNING 01 / 05
A single decision-maker
One person with authority over positioning, copy, and design. If approvals need multiple stakeholders, we want to know who they are before we sign.
IN DISCOVERY 02 / 05
Access to buyer feedback
Sales notes, customer emails, reviews. You share it during discovery; we extract the positioning that’s been there all along.
IN THE SESSIONS 03 / 05
Honest answers
The work depends on candor, including the things you’d rather not say out loud. Held in confidence. The strategy is only as good as the truth behind it.
AT EACH GATE 04 / 05
Timely signoff
Each stage has a defined review window. If signoff stalls, the deliverable is deemed accepted and the engagement pauses.
AFTER LAUNCH 05 / 05
Ownership of the work
You own the site and every source file. Host it yourself or have us deploy it. The optimization retainer is optional, never a default.
Begin
Book Your Discovery Call Ready to run this on your business?
Response within one business day. Signed off in writing at every gate. No surprise scope, single point of contact. hello@claritect.co