Process in 5 Steps

Our process is well-established and effective for all types of web projects, with a primary focus on WordPress and WooCommerce.

1. Initial Estimate
2. Workshops, Wireframes & Specifications
3. Iterative Development Process
4. MVP Release
5. Further Development & Operation

This process is tailored to deliver maximum business value to our clients while ensuring security for both parties.

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Step 1: Initial Estimate

The first step is, of course, time estimation and creating a quote. But how can you estimate the time for a project when you only have a general idea of what it will ultimately look like? The simple answer is experience. With our extensive background in WordPress and WooCommerce, we assess how much time a project might take based on our knowledge and past work. If your budget aligns, we can move forward with the project.

In many cases, we’ve completed similar projects to yours in the past, and it’s this experience with WordPress that allows us to deliver high-quality results quickly. For example, for marketing or e-commerce websites, we’ve developed a strong foundation—Qala—that incorporates all the expertise we’ve built since 2007. With Qala, you get many valuable features from the start, providing a minimum viable solution to get your project moving in the right direction quickly.

Our first step is primarily to confirm that we have the necessary WordPress and WooCommerce expertise for your needs, followed by providing a rough estimate. At this stage, a detailed price proposal is uncommon, and it’s often more of a template than a tailored quote. We want to provide real value, and to do so, we need to move to the next step in the process.

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Step 2: Workshops, Wireframes & User Stories

The next step in defining what we will do for you as a customer is to hold a workshop, where we work together to write user stories. This method helps outline what you should be able to do with your project and the features required to make it possible. Through this process, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the project and align with your business goals.

Once the user stories and wireframes are ready, we use a method called Poker Planning to assess the time required. Our team comes together, and through our collective experience, we create a reasonably realistic time estimate. By this point, we have a solid understanding of how much time the project will likely take.

With this estimate in hand, we can begin outlining the plan for the next steps. It’s important to prioritise at this stage—what features are most crucial for the project, and which can be deferred to future versions? Once the prioritisation list is in place, it’s time to take action.

However, there may be challenges that are difficult to estimate. We consider complexity in our estimates using the Cynefin framework, which helps us understand that some elements can be estimated, while others are simply impossible to predict. Ultimately, it all comes down to the level of complexity involved.

Problems are categorised into four different types:

1. Chaotic Problems – These are impossible to estimate and typically involve obscure troubleshooting or issues with many dependencies. In these cases, we do our best to address the problem and provide periodic updates, typically every 4 or 8 hours, depending on what we agree on.
2. Complex Problems (Investigative) – These cannot be estimated up front, but we request investigation time, usually 4 or 8 hours. Within this time, we can typically identify the root cause and possible solutions, and in some cases, we can resolve the issue during the investigation period.
3. Complex Problems – These problems are more defined, and we have a clear sense of what they are and how to solve them. Here, we typically provide an estimate within a broader range, for example, 20-40 hours.
4. Common Problems – These are tasks we’ve encountered many times before, and the solution is clear. For these, we offer more precise estimates, typically within a narrow range, such as 6-8 hours.

As a customer, it’s important to understand these classifications, as they help define our daily workflow and are common elements in our process.

Step 3: Iterative Development Process

In our iterative development process, the project is broken down into “sprints,” typically lasting 1-2 weeks.

Every week, we hold a reconciliation meeting with you as the customer. During this meeting, we review what has been completed, address any new requests, and adjust the project’s priorities. Our aim is to prevent extending the project beyond the agreed budget. This can only be accomplished if you, as the customer, stay engaged and assist with task prioritisation.

The success of the iterative process hinges on strong communication and continuous feedback. It’s important to understand that if either party isn’t fully engaged or delays communication, small details can easily be overlooked. Clear communication is crucial not only for the project’s success but also for maintaining transparency. Often, it’s the seemingly minor details that can have the greatest impact on the overall outcome.

For the first reconciliation, we typically use a kanban tool like Trello to document all the user stories and tasks, prioritising them according to our initial discussions.

This approach offers several benefits. Firstly, it enables us to work in small, manageable iterations. For example, if you, as a customer, wish to make a change to User Story 1, that’s absolutely fine. However, this change must be added as a new user story, rather than modifying the existing one. Including changes in an existing user story can create confusion and make it harder to track project changes over time.

By adding the change as a new user story, it becomes clear to all parties that prioritisation is necessary. This may mean that another user story is pushed to the next sprint or version, and as a result, it will be included in a different budget than the current sprint. This helps keep the process transparent and ensures that the project remains manageable and on track.

Step 4: MVP Release

After completing a number of sprints, we reach a point where we’re ready to release the product. Our approach is always to release as early as possible, allowing you to launch your product, start marketing, and gain traction in the market straight away.

Endless development without a release doesn’t generate revenue, and every day you delay, competitors move closer to catching up. This is why we embrace modern development methods such as Continuous Delivery. This approach allows us to get your product to market quickly and is at the heart of how we manage operations.

At our company, we divide ongoing WordPress work into two key areas: 

Development & Support and Operations

Operations is our commitment to ensuring that your website functions properly, typically at a fixed monthly cost (with some exceptions).

Continuous Development & Support is how we assist you on a day-to-day basis, helping to drive improvements and solve any issues that arise.

As a customer, you can choose the level of involvement that works best for you. You can opt for us to be completely passive, work proactively, or even become an integral part of your business, depending on your needs.

Further Development

Further development focuses on two main areas: addressing tasks or features that couldn’t be prioritised during the initial project phase, and leveraging data analysis to drive continuous improvement.

Our goal is to help you drive more traffic, understand your visitors better, and optimise your website’s performance based on actionable insights. This ongoing development ensures that your website evolves alongside your business, adapting to new opportunities and challenges over time.

First 6-12 Months

In the early stages, our focus is typically on offering a smaller commitment in UX and conversion optimisation.

With this understanding, we assist in implementing changes and improvements that deliver tangible value for your business. This value varies from case to case, but it often includes streamlined purchase flows that lead to increased revenue and reduced costs per sale. A successful, data-driven strategy can dramatically boost your WordPress/WooCommerce site’s performance—sometimes even adding an extra zero to your revenue.

A typical meeting might include:

• Review of actions taken since the last meeting
• Review of KPIs
• Review of metrics
• Quantitative data (from tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, etc.)
• Qualitative data (feedback from your support team—what are customers asking for the most?)
• Theories on why the data looks the way it does
• Theories on how we can improve to boost KPIs
• Planning of actions to implement before the next meeting

This structured approach ensures we’re always moving toward measurable business goals, adapting to new insights and opportunities.

After 12 Months, and Then Annually

After the first 12 months, and subsequently on an annual basis, once we’ve addressed most of the low-hanging fruit, it’s time to take a deeper dive. At this stage, we’re happy to conduct a workshop where, based on the data we’ve collected and the wishlist from our project, we identify further opportunities for improvement and map out their expected impact. This approach allows us to refine strategies and ensure sustained progress toward achieving your business goals.

Operation & support

Our WordPress operations & support goes beyond traditional services and has no true equivalent in the Swedish market. What we offer is total responsibility and peace of mind, often referred to as Managed Application Services (MAS).

Thanks to our Continuous Delivery process, we ensure that quality work is consistently delivered, both during the project and after its completion. With the use of various automated tests, we proactively ensure that no business-critical functions are compromised, even during updates.

For instance, as a WooCommerce e-merchant, you need to be confident that any issues are detected early—before something as critical as the checkout process is disrupted. This is where our expertise truly stands out, ensuring that potential problems are identified and resolved swiftly, keeping your business running smoothly.

Contact us to discuss your next WordPress or WooCommerce project!