Playbooks
Briefs, budgets, discovery sprints and handovers — how to buy, and run, agency work well.
Reference calls: what to ask an agency's past clients
Twelve questions for agency reference calls that surface reality — first missed dates, month-three invoices, vanishing seniors — and how to read the hedges.
Running a design critique people actually want to attend
Our Thursday critique format, a decade in the tuning: framed questions, a silent read, kind-specific-necessary filters, and stopping senior voices anchoring.
The kickoff workshop agenda we run before every build
Our actual half-day kickoff agenda for a 12-week build: the hour-one decision log, the risk room, role mapping and the 'what would make this fail' round.
Content handover: getting real words before design ends
Lorem ipsum is a launch delay in a fake moustache. The workflow we run: working inventories, voice alignment, reviews that don't sprawl, and editor-phase checks.
How to write a project brief that gets better proposals
A buyer-side playbook for briefing agencies: problem over solution, useful constraints, budget honesty, evaluation criteria, and a template you can steal.
Pilot projects: proving fit before the retainer
How to structure a paid two-to-four-week pilot with an agency: what a pilot can actually prove, honest pricing, exit criteria, and converting a pilot into an engagement.
Choosing an agency: signals over showreels
How to evaluate a studio beyond the deck: process evidence, who does the work, reference questions that reveal truth, and red flags in pricing.
Handovers that don't decay: the living handover playbook
Most agency handovers are a folder of PDFs and a prayer. Here's the playbook we run instead: documentation that gets used, pairing windows, and a 30-60-90 support taper.
Estimating: how studios price and how to read a quote
Demystifying software estimates: scope decomposition, risk loading, fixed price vs retainer maths, variation clauses, and the questions buyers should ask.
Getting the most from a remote studio
Hiring a distributed agency shouldn't mean slower decisions or lonelier projects. A buyer's guide to async rituals, time zones and demo cadence.
Discovery sprints: two weeks that de-risk six months
Our discovery sprint format, published: inputs, the ten days, the decision memo output, who must attend, and when discovery is a stall dressed as diligence.
Launch week: the checklist we run for every site
Go-live is a week, not an afternoon. The runbook we run for every launch: redirects, DNS, analytics continuity, rollback criteria, and day-two priorities.