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Process

How a Parcel Digital retainer runs

Three phases. Working software in staging by end of week one, then we ship every Friday. We don’t launch and hand off — we stay running. It’s the same cadence whether we’re building internal tools, a client portal, custom SaaS, or a legacy rebuild.

Three phases. One ongoing engagement.

The first week is the only one that looks different. After that, the cadence is the same every week we’re on your account — though how often we deploy to production depends on your tier.

01

Map

Week 1

We get aligned on what we're building, why, and which initiative ships first.

Activities

  • Kickoff workshop — 2 hours on Foundry, 4 hours on Studio, full day on Atelier
  • System mapping — current stack, integrations, data sources, jobs-to-be-done
  • Pick the first initiative, the one that pays for itself fastest
  • Write the 90-day roadmap and get it signed by both sides

Deliverables

  • Signed 90-day roadmap
  • Project Slack channel and shared Notion workspace
  • Tier confirmed and start date set
02

Build & Ship

Week 1 onward

Working software in staging by the end of week one. After that, we ship every Friday.

Activities

  • Working software deployed to staging by end of week 1 — auth shell, design system, and the first thin slice
  • Weekly Friday deploys to production at every tier
  • Twice-weekly demos on Studio and Atelier (Tue + Fri staging deploys)
  • Async-first communication — we don't burn your day in standups

Deliverables

  • Weekly “shipped this week” recap in your Slack
  • Staging URL always live, with the latest build
  • Production deploys at your tier's cadence (Foundry ~1/wk, Studio ~2/wk, Atelier continuous)
03

Run & Iterate

Ongoing

We stay running. We don't hand off and disappear — we maintain, improve, and ship the next initiative on your roadmap.

Activities

  • Production monitoring and bug fixes inside the tier's support scope
  • Next initiative on your roadmap, picked up as the current one wraps
  • Monthly roadmap review on Studio and Atelier
  • Quarterly business review on Studio and Atelier — a 30-minute deck on what shipped, what moved, what's next

Deliverables

  • Production uptime, owned by us
  • QBR deck delivered each quarter (Studio + Atelier)
  • Next initiative kickoff on the date in your roadmap

What makes this different

Built to keep running, not to hand off

Ship every Friday

Working software in staging by end of week 1, then weekly deploys for the life of the engagement. You see progress every Friday — never a black-box month.

Visible roadmap

Your roadmap lives in shared Notion, your active initiatives live in a shared board. You always know what's in flight, what's queued, and what's blocked.

You own everything

Source code in your GitHub, cloud accounts in your name, every credential under your control. Pause or cancel and you keep all of it — no hostage code, no lock-in.

We stay running

Retainer means we don't launch and vanish. We monitor, we patch, we keep building. The team that shipped v1 is the same team shipping v3.

Ready to start?

Working software in staging by end of week one.

Tell us about the build. Five-minute form, then a written build plan inside one business day. No call required.

No call required. We reply within 1 business day.