1. Define
First, we need to learn who you are — if it’s a new relationship — and what you want to achieve. We must understand your business, your values, your audience and your objectives. From that, we’ll define the project scope to ensure we propose something to exceed your and your audience’s expectations.
2. Design
As soon as you’ve agreed the project scope, we’ll get designing. We'll produce a content outline to explain what content goes where, in the form of a wireframe prototype or a ‘document map’. On the creative side, we'll generate a set of design visuals to allow you to feed back on the proposed look and feel.
3. Develop
When the content outline and the design visuals have been approved, we’ll build out the main deliverables. We’ll turn designs into code and/or develop the graphic assets. With your help, we’ll create the content for the finished product. Finally, we’ll test to make sure we’re happy with what we’ve built.
Continuous improvement
Whilst the ‘4 Ds’ take us from the start of a project to the finish, best results come when a process is iterative. So, in the interests of ongoing improvement, our unofficial fifth D is ‘Do it again'. Sometime after the project, we‘d work with you to measure success and see what enhancements might be made.
4. Deliver
Finally, it’s delivery time. For websites, we’ll hand over to you to complete your own user testing before we deploy. For emails, we’ll send you test emails and share the results of our testing before campaign broadcast. For brand and print projects, we’ll hand over the finished products and/or assets.
A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.