The website you were going to build after the last one didn’t work
Six weeks of discovery, six of design, six of build. One fixed scope, led by Joe.
You’ve done the cheap version. The freelancer who was great until he wasn’t. The board member’s nephew. The template that looked fine in the demo and fell apart the first time you needed to change something. Now the site is the thing standing between your organization and the people it’s supposed to serve, and you can raise the money to fix it once.
You’ve also priced the expensive version: the full-service firm with the six-figure deck and a coordinator waiting to take over the day after kickoff.
Complete Website Transformation is the option between those two. A fixed 18-week engagement where the strategy is done before the design, the site is built on WordPress your own staff can run, and the person who ran your discovery is the person managing the build. Our team has completed many of them over the past ten years, and the method hasn’t needed to change.
Pricing comes from the intake. Answer the questions and a proposal with pricing comes back to you, online and as a PDF.
Is this the right move for your organization?
We work with decision-makers who can fund a website project once and want to do it right.
Good fit if you:
- Lead a nonprofit, a family business, or a professional practice, and the website decision is yours to make
- Can fund a one-time project in the five figures without it being a bet-the-organization move
- Make decisions on research, and you’ll sit in the room while we do it
- Have been burned by the cheap version and priced the expensive one
- Want the documentation to be yours, whoever ends up building from it
- Would rather get it right than get it fast
Wrong fit if you:
- Need a site live in under 18 weeks
- Already have the design decided and want it executed without discovery
- Want to hand it off at kickoff and see it again at launch
- Expect to change the scope mid-build without changing the schedule
- Would be risking the organization on this budget
We’d rather say no early. When the fit isn’t there, we’ll tell you and point you to someone better. That’s cheaper for both of us than six months of pretending.
Who we build for
Organizations where the website has a job to do and nobody on staff was hired to build one.
Nonprofits
Your site has to explain a mission, take a donation, and get a person to the help they came for. We’ve built for community health and mental health organizations, including a bilingual practitioner directory.
Family businesses
The site was built by a relative years ago and nobody’s allowed to touch it. You need one that a regular employee can update on a Tuesday afternoon without calling anyone.
Professional practices
A strong reputation and a site that doesn’t turn it into appointments. Our most recent practice work, two sites for one therapy group, started with the practitioner bio pages, because that’s where their prospective clients were deciding.
Marketing firms that need a build partner
If you run a full-service firm and need a strategy-and-WordPress partner for a client’s site, start the intake and say so. Your client, your relationship, our discovery and build.
What we measure, since we won’t promise you a number
Every site we build has a job you can count.
Newsletter signups. Appointments booked. Purchases. Donations. We agree on which ones matter during discovery, we set up the measurement before launch, and you see the same numbers we do. What you won’t find on this page is a percentage. Anyone quoting you a conversion lift before they’ve seen your data is guessing, and you’ve already paid for guesses.
What the cheap version is costing you
You know the symptoms. The site is slow. Nobody on staff can update it without calling someone. The donate button is three clicks deep. The event page from two years ago is still up. People arrive from the campaign you paid for and leave without doing the thing.
When a site gets built before anyone writes down what it’s for, you end up with:
- A homepage that says everything and therefore nothing a visitor can act on
- A layout that looks fine and doesn’t lead anyone toward the donate button, the booking form, or the phone number
- Manual work that a form, an integration, or a content plan could have removed
- A site your staff is afraid of, so it stops changing the day it launches
A prettier template won’t fix any of it, because the problem started before the design did.
Strategy first. Then design. Then build.
Six weeks of discovery before anyone opens a design tool.
That’s the part most projects skip, and it’s the part you keep no matter what happens after.
Why discovery comes first
By the end of week six you have, in writing, what the site has to accomplish, who it’s for, what they need to see to act, what has to connect to what, and how you’ll know it’s working. Design and development happen against that document instead of against opinions in a meeting. If we part ways at that point, the document goes with you.
How the work runs
Research first
Interviews with your customers or donors, a look at who you’re up against, and a written list of what the site has to do
Prototype in the browser
You click through prototypes in your browser before code is written, so feedback happens where it’s cheap
Measure from launch
Analytics for the numbers we agreed on, set up before the site goes live
Every decision on the finished site traces back to something we learned in discovery.
Your 18 weeks, phase by phase
Three six-week phases. A checkpoint at the end of each one.
You sign off before we spend the next six weeks. That’s how the schedule stays fixed and how you’re never surprised by what shows up at launch.
This is a working partnership. Plan on three to five hours a week for workshops, review rounds, and decisions. We don’t build websites in a back room and reveal them. Your knowledge of your organization plus our method is what makes the result fit.
Phase 1: Discovery and strategy (weeks 1 to 6)
Understanding before building
Joe leads this phase personally. Before anyone designs a page, we document:
User experience architecture
- User stories that connect what visitors want to what you need them to do
- A plan for the home page and every page layout in your package (six, ten, or sixteen)
- Content structure that builds trust and leads to the next step
- Where the friction is today and how to remove it
Technical blueprint
- Business requirements, written down
- Integration specs for the tools you already use
- Performance targets and accessibility standards
- Security and compliance requirements
Phase 2: Design (weeks 7 to 12)
From the document to something you can click
Our design-and-build partner works from the discovery documentation. Joe reviews every round before you see it.
Wireframes
- Structural layouts for every page in the plan
- User flows and how each interaction works
- Content hierarchy and navigation
- Mobile layouts planned from the start
Interactive prototypes
- Clickable prototypes you review in your browser
- Real interactions, so you can feel how it works
- Visual design that fits your brand and serves the goals
- Two rounds of design, each answering one consolidated round of your feedback, so revisions stay on schedule
Design system
- A consistent visual language for the whole site
- Reusable components for pages you’ll add later
- Accessibility built into the components
Phase 3: Build (weeks 13 to 18)
A WordPress site your team can run
The approved prototypes become a custom WordPress build, delivered as two release candidates, with Joe managing the sprint and the handoff:
WordPress development
- A custom theme built for your content, not a purchased template
- Code that loads fast on a phone
- Search-friendly structure from the ground up
Integrations and content
- Connections to your email, donation, booking, or CRM tools
- Up to 1,000 URLs migrated and structured by our content team
- An editing experience a regular employee can use
Testing and launch
- Testing across devices and browsers
- Performance and accessibility checks before go-live
- A staging site for your team to practice on
- Training so updates don’t require a phone call
Who does the work
A small team with one person accountable for the whole thing.
Joe Taylor Jr., strategy and project lead
Joe runs discovery himself and manages the project through launch. Nielsen Norman Group UX Master Certified, building for the web since 1999, and running Johns & Taylor since 2012. You’ll have his number.
Our content team
They plan, write, and migrate the content: the part of a redesign that usually takes longer than anyone budgets for. It’s the same team that runs Content Operations for our retainer clients week to week.
A design-and-build partner
Design and WordPress development are done by a partner studio we’ve worked with before, on a fixed sprint schedule, from Joe’s discovery documentation. Joe reviews every round before it reaches you.
How we work together
Weekly working sessions during discovery. Structured review rounds during design and build. Your sign-off at the end of each phase.
How we actually work
Four things we’ll hold to even when it costs us the project.
Data over drama
When the research contradicts an assumption, we bring the research, not a feeling. The best projects we’ve done are the ones where the client leaned into that with curiosity.
Respect for craft
You know your organization. We know how websites succeed and fail. The work goes well when each side trusts the other with its half.
Execution partnership
The same people who wrote the strategy manage the build against it.
Sustainable investment
No hype, no Hail Marys. A website is a long-lived asset, and we’ll tell you when the smart move is to spend less, or later, or somewhere else.
Your 18-week investment
Three packages. Same 18 weeks, same method, same person running it.
Every package includes the six weeks of discovery led by Joe, six weeks of design, six weeks of custom WordPress development, migration of up to 1,000 URLs, two rounds of design and two of development (each answering one consolidated round of your feedback), the Client Library from kickoff through a year after launch, and three months of warranty, aftercare, and bug fixes. The packages differ in how many page layouts they cover and how long we stay after launch.
Good
- Up to six page layouts
- Three months of warranty and aftercare
- Enough for four or five landing pages and a blog
Better
- Up to ten page layouts
- Six months of warranty and aftercare
- Three months of Content Operations after launch
Best
- Up to sixteen page layouts
- A year of warranty and aftercare
- A year of Content Operations after launch
How you pay
- A quarter at signing
- A quarter when the roadmapping findings are delivered (week 6)
- A quarter at design mockups (week 12)
- A quarter at the second release candidate (week 18), whether or not you’ve launched publicly yet
- Pay in full at signing and take ten percent off
Your commitment
- 3 to 5 hours a week for workshops and review
- One consolidated round of feedback per deliverable; extra rounds add three weeks each and a change order
- The full 18 weeks, with a sign-off at each checkpoint
- A willingness to act on what the research says
A layout is a distinct page design: a landing page, a blog post, a press release. Simpler sites usually need four or five landing pages and one blog layout. Complex ones need more. The intake asks enough to recommend a package, and the proposal that comes back shows the price for each.
If it isn’t working
The deposit is non-refundable, and the work is structured so you’re never trapped. Every phase ends with a checkpoint where you sign off before we spend the next six weeks. If we’re misaligned after discovery, you keep every piece of documentation we produced, and it’s written so any competent developer can build from it.
If a project this size would be a bet-the-organization move, we’re not the right partner for this year. Start with Website Roadmapping so the plan is ready when the budget is, and come back for the build. We’ll still be here.
Questions you’re probably asking
Why 18 weeks?
Six weeks each for discovery, design, and build. Discovery is what keeps the next twelve weeks from turning into rework. Our design-and-build partner needs the full sprints, and so do you.
What if we need to launch sooner?
Then this isn’t the right engagement, and we’ll say so. If you need a site in under 18 weeks, we’ll point you to people who do that well.
How is this different from a template site?
A template gives you a layout. It doesn’t tell you what the site is for, what your donors need to see first, or how to measure whether it’s working. Six weeks of discovery does. And you own that documentation even if you build on a template later.
What’s the time commitment?
Three to five hours a week for 18 weeks: workshops during discovery, review rounds during design and build, and a sign-off at each checkpoint. If that isn’t possible right now, wait until it is. The site will be better for it.
Do you only work with nonprofits?
No. We’ve built for nonprofits and professional practices, and our retainer clients include national media companies. If your organization has a website with a job to do, the method is the same. Start the intake and we’ll tell you if it’s a fit.
What if we’re not satisfied?
Say so at the checkpoint, before the next phase starts. After discovery, the documentation is yours to take anywhere; the deposit isn’t refundable. After launch, the warranty covers bugs and aftercare for three months to a year, depending on the package.
Still have questions? The intake takes a few minutes, and the proposal that comes back is the fastest way to see whether the numbers and the timeline work for you.
What happens next
No discovery call required to see the numbers.
Get your proposal
The intake asks about your organization, your goals, your timeline, and what the site has to connect to. Then:
- A proposal with the price of each package, the timeline, and the deliverables comes back to you, online and as a PDF
- You review it on your own time, with whoever needs to see it
- If it works, accept it and we’ll set a start date
- If it doesn’t, you’ve lost a few minutes and learned what a project like this costs
Where this sits among our services
Complete Website Transformation is Website Roadmapping plus six weeks of design and six of build. Four ways to work with us. Plan the site, build it, put a strategist on the leadership team, or keep it accurate after launch.
Website
Roadmapping
Write down what the site is for before anyone builds it.
See Website Roadmapping →Complete Website
Transformation
Discovery, design, and a WordPress build. One scope.
Experience Strategy
Leadership
A senior strategist on your leadership team, without the hire.
See Experience Strategy Leadership →Content
Operations
The updates that keep a live site accurate, month after month.
See Content Operations →After launch
The questions don’t stop when the site goes live. Every client keeps the Client Library for a year after launch, the Better and Best packages include Content Operations so the updates keep landing after we hand over the keys, and a program that outgrows a project can put Joe on retainer.
Build it once, with the strategy written down
The organizations happiest with their website are the ones that decided what it was for before anyone picked a color.
Six weeks of that. Six of design. Six of build. At the end you have a site your team can run and a set of documents that outlast us, whoever you work with next.
Ready to see the number?
Answer the intake questions. A proposal with the price of each package comes back to you, online and as a PDF. No call required.
Get your proposal → Just the discovery? See Website Roadmapping