1. A straight first conversation
We start by understanding the job: who uses it, what happens today, what goes wrong, and what has to be true on launch day. If we are not the right people, we say so. If an off-the-shelf tool would do, we say that too, even though it means less work for us.
2. Find the risky part and prove it
Every platform has one part that could sink it: a data feed with gaps, a payment flow with edge cases, a route optimiser, an AI assistant that must not invent things. We build that part first, as a small working proof, before designing everything around it. If it does not work, you find out in week two, not month six.
3. Design the flow, then the screens
We map the shortest route through each job, then design and test the screens with the people who will use them. Brand and interface are designed together, so the developers build from the same tokens the designers chose. More on this in UX and UI design.
4. Build in small releases
Work happens in short steps on a password-protected staging copy that you can use as it grows. Code lives in Git. Tests cover anything that takes money, sends messages or changes data, and continuous integration runs them on every change, so a broken test stops a deploy.
5. Launch with a way back
Migrations are rehearsed on a copy first. Old addresses get redirects so search traffic is not lost. Databases are backed up before a release, and every launch has a rollback plan that has been thought about before it is needed. Where it makes sense we launch in stages, as we did when MyFootballFacts moved from WordPress to Laravel one section at a time.
6. Look after it
We host what we build on our own servers, behind the Bunny CDN and a firewall, with nightly backups, and we patch it ourselves. Scheduled jobs are monitored, and we hear about a stale feed or a failed job before your customers do. Most of the platforms we have built are still run by us, which is the best reason we know to build them carefully.
What we will not do
- Publish invented reviews, ratings or figures, on your platform or ours.
- Hide the code from you. It is yours.
- Put an AI on your site that can make up facts about your business.
- Quote before we understand the job.