One stepahead
A studio year in review. Seven short chapters, ten minutes.
Broke the mold
Three decisions that changed how we work.
Fewer, longer projects
We cut the roster from fourteen clients to six and doubled the average engagement.
Design and code in one room
Every project now ships as a working prototype, not a PDF.
Fridays off the clock
Four-day weeks since March. Output went up, not down.
The numbers
What changed once the roster got smaller.
How we work
Seven weeks, four phases, one team the whole way.
Listen
Interviews with the people who will use it, not just the ones who pay.
Prototype
A clickable version in the browser before any polish.
Build
Design and engineering in the same file, every day.
Hand over
Documentation, a recorded walkthrough, and a quiet exit.
In their words
Three clients, unedited.
“They asked better questions than our own team did.”Nadia R. · Head of Product, Kite
“The week-two prototype was more useful than the last agency's final deliverable.”Tomas L. · Founder, Brine
“Every review felt like a working session, not a presentation.”Priya M. · CMO, Lumen
Then and now
Same people, different shape.
Last year
- Fourteen clients
- PDF deliverables
- Five-day weeks
- Pitch decks every month
This year
- Six clients
- Working prototypes
- Four-day weeks
- Zero pitches
Same eight people, same room, twelve months apart.
What's next
Four things we have already started.
- Open a second room in Lisbon
- Publish the process as a playbook
- Ship two products of our own
- Keep the week at four days