How a 2D2C engagement actually runs — from the first research interview to the shipped build, in 8 to 12 weeks.
A working document, not a pitch deck. The four phases below are the same sequence we have run on every engagement since 2017, refined across 142 shipped products for founders, VPs of Product, and Heads of Design who needed a senior crew embedded with their team for a single, decisive build.
Four phases. One crew. One roadmap.
Every 2D2C engagement runs through the same four gates. No phase is optional, no phase is outsourced, and the partner who pitched the work is in the room for all four. Below is what happens in each, what leaves the studio, and what your team can plan around.
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I Weeks 1–3
Research — listen before a single wireframe is drawn.
8–12 customer interviews, a competitive teardown, and a quantified Jobs-to-Be-Done map. We do not start strategy until we can name, in writing, the job the customer is hiring your product for.
- Deliverables
- Interview transcripts (annotated), JTBD map, competitive landscape one-pager, opportunity ranking with three weighted bets.
- Your team’s time
- ~4 hours/week. You sit in on two interviews and co-author the JTBD map.
- Exit gate
- A signed Research Memo. No strategy work begins until this is approved.
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II Weeks 3–5
Strategy — pick one bet and price the build before week one.
We convert the research memo into a product brief, an information architecture, and a fixed-scope statement of work with line-item effort estimates and a single number. No T&M, no open hourly meter.
- Deliverables
- Product brief, IA, success metrics, fixed-scope SoW with written estimate, 12-week roadmap with weekly milestones.
- Your team’s time
- ~6 hours/week. One working session to lock scope, one to approve the roadmap.
- Exit gate
- A signed SoW and a single invoice schedule. The build crew is named.
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III Weeks 5–8
Design — brand, UX, and visual system, drawn by the same hand.
A senior designer (never a junior, never an offshore handoff) leads the system. We deliver a Figma library, a coded React component set, and an interactive prototype that engineering can build against on day one of the next phase.
- Deliverables
- Design system, high-fidelity flows for every priority surface, interactive prototype, documented component library.
- Your team’s time
- ~3 hours/week. One design review per week, async Loom comments the rest.
- Exit gate
- Design sign-off with named engineering owner for each surface.
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IV Weeks 8–12
Build — ship the surface area in the SoW, instrument the rest.
Two to three senior engineers pair with the designer who drew the system. We ship in two-week slices against a shared staging environment, with weekly demos and a single Slack channel where decisions are written down, not buried in DMs.
- Deliverables
- Production codebase in your repo, deployment pipeline, analytics and event tracking, launch runbook, 30-day post-launch support.
- Your team’s time
- ~2 hours/week. One demo, one async review.
- Exit gate
- A signed-off launch checklist and a handoff doc your in-house team can own on day 31.
The numbers behind the process.
4 to 6 people. One point of contact.
Every engagement is staffed with a founding partner, a design lead, a technical lead, and one to three senior practitioners. There is no account manager between you and the work, and there is no offshore handoff on a Friday afternoon.
- Founding partnerStrategy, scope, and the final call on every shipped surface.
- Design leadSenior, in-house. Owns the system end-to-end.
- Technical leadSenior, in-house. Architects the build and reviews every PR.
- Senior practitioner(s)Brand, motion, research, or engineering — matched to scope.
- ProducerSchedules, demos, and the shared roadmap. Reports to the partner.
If the process fits, the next step is a 30-minute call with a partner.
No discovery deck. No qualifying SDR. You will sit with either Maya or Daniel for thirty minutes, walk through what you are trying to ship, and leave with a written point of view on whether 2D2C is the right studio for the work — even when it isn’t.
Proposals delivered within five business days. Fixed-scope, in writing, before week one.