Shipping in 6 weeks, not 6 months

The brief

A client came to us with a familiar problem: a long wishlist, a fixed budget, and a launch date driven by a real business event. Six months of discovery was not an option, so we agreed on a six-week window and a single measurable goal - take orders online.

Weeks 1-2: scope and design

We mapped the buying journey on one page and cut every feature that did not appear on it. Accounts, wishlists and loyalty points moved to phase two. What remained was a catalogue, a product page, a checkout with Mobile Money, and an order notification.

Design happened directly in components rather than in long static mockups, so what the client approved was what we could ship.

Weeks 3-5: build with weekly demos

Every Friday the client saw a working URL, not a status report. Feedback landed while it was still cheap to act on, and no surprise appeared in the final week.

Accessibility checks ran alongside the build - keyboard navigation, contrast, alt text and screen-reader labels - instead of being bolted on afterwards.

Week 6: launch and handover

Launch week was content, performance tuning, SEO metadata, analytics and a training session for the owner. The site went live on schedule, and phase-two features were added later from a position of real usage data.

The payment schedule mirrored the phases, which is why the budget held: a deposit to start, a milestone at design approval, and the balance at launch.