How we work
A charted course from kickoff to launch.
No mystery meetings, no drifting scope. Thorough discovery and research inform our design and build stages. We create, refine, and improve, working directly with you. Then, we set sail.
Why it works
Twenty years of meetings we sat through so you don't have to.
We spent two decades inside corporate offices: the standing meetings that drift for an hour, the calls scheduled to look busy, the status updates nobody reads. Real work got buried under the ceremony of looking busy.
Set Sail's process is the antidote. We refined it over hundreds of projects into something lean on purpose: fewer meetings, clearer checkpoints, and a private portal that answers "where are we?" without a calendar invite. When we do talk, it's because there's a decision to make, not a box to check.
Scroll our journey together: the exact voyage every project takes, so you always know where we are on the route.
The voyage
Our process.
Clearly defined milestones keep every project on course, from the first sketch to launch day and the steady care that follows.
We listen, then we map
Your goals, your customers, your competition. We do the research, ask the awkward questions early, and turn it all into a plan written in plain English.
- Discovery workshop with the whole team, yours and ours
- Strategy, sitemap, and content plan
- A fixed scope, schedule, and straight-shooting quote
Drafts, revisions, real progress
Design and development run side by side. First drafts become revisions, revisions become fine-tuning, and you review working pages on a private staging site, not static pictures.
- Design concepts with revision rounds until it feels right
- A staging site you can watch grow week by week
- Checkpoints at every milestone; your feedback shapes each draft
Shipshape on every screen
Before anything launches, we put it through its paces: real people using it, every device type, every speed test, every accessibility check. Then we tune what we find.
- Usability testing with real users, not just us nodding at our own work
- Performance and speed optimization on phones, tablets, and desktops
- Accessibility checks so the site works for everyone who visits
Day one, handled
One last polish pass, then the big day: deployment, redirects, analytics, search visibility, and training for your team. We stand watch through launch so you can enjoy it.
- A final polish and pre-flight checklist before the ropes come off
- Zero-downtime deployment; analytics verified from the first visitor
- Hands-on training so your team owns the helm
We stay aboard
Launch is the start of the trip, not the end. Support, maintenance, measurement, and steady improvements until results show up where they matter most: your bottom line.
- Support and maintenance from people who built your site
- Monthly reporting in plain English, not dashboard soup
- A running roadmap of what to improve next, and why
⚓ SAFE HARBOR · RESULTS DELIVERED ⚓
While we build
Your own Client Harbor.
Every project comes with a private portal. It's how we keep the work moving without endless status meetings or long email threads.
Always know where it stands
Live milestones show progress in real time. No "just checking in" meeting required.
Review in one place
Approve designs and live demos or request changes right on the file, no scheduling, no back-and-forth.
Everything in one harbor
Files, messages, invoices, and secure online payment, all in one place you can reach anytime.
Faster feedback loops
A quick comment beats a calendar invite, so we stay on schedule.
Patrick has saved me on many occasions with his ability to create a high-quality product in a crunch. His counsel and awareness of emerging technologies have proven invaluable.
Ryan Cassin · CONNECT Strategic
Next step
Ready to start?
We'll guide the first step.
Trusting a team with your idea is the hardest step, and we've been earning that trust since 2006. Step one is just a conversation.