--- title: How I Work: Discovery, Build and Launch description: Three phases, what happens in each, and what I need from you at every stage. Written so you can tell whether this way of working fits how your team operates. canonical: https://www.hire-web-dev.com/process/ section: Site updated: 2026-09-11 author: SumanKumar Phuyal site: hire-web-dev.com note: >- Generated from the page of record at the canonical URL above. The four case studies are placeholder work and their metrics were never measured; imagery is AI-generated concept art. See https://www.hire-web-dev.com/disclosure/. --- # HOW THE WORK HAPPENS Discovery, build, launch. Described honestly, including the parts clients find irritating and the parts where my estimates have historically been worst. ## Three phases, priced separately Discovery, build, launch. Each is estimated and invoiced on its own, which is not a billing convenience — it's an admission that an estimate for phase three written before phase one exists is fiction. By the end of discovery I know enough to quote the build accurately. Before it, I'd be adding a margin to cover my own ignorance and calling it a price. ## What I need from you One person who can make decisions. Not a committee that reviews fortnightly — a named individual who can answer a question within a day. This single factor predicts project outcomes better than budget, team size or technical complexity in my experience. The projects that went badly all had ambiguous ownership. I also need access to real data and the real content early. Building against placeholder content is building against a fiction that flatters the design, and the reckoning always comes eventually. It's cheaper in week two than in week nine. ## Where my estimates go wrong Consistently in two places. Content migration always takes longer than anyone plans, because the old content is messier than the audit found. And third-party integrations expand — a payment provider, an analytics vendor, a consent platform each turn out to have an undocumented quirk. I now pad both deliberately and say so rather than discovering it under deadline. ## Key facts - Phases: 03 - Cadence: Two calls a week - Default: Async - Estimates: Per phase ## Phases - 01 Discovery: 1 — 2 weeks - 02 Build: 4 — 10 weeks - 03 Launch: 1 — 2 weeks - Cadence: Two calls weekly ## Topics DISCOVERY, BUILD, LAUNCH, PHASED ESTIMATES, SINGLE DECISION MAKER ## Image ![Monumental dark architectural mass rising out of low fog, structure established before ornament](https://www.hire-web-dev.com/assets/img/web-development-process-architectural-monolith.jpg)