You may or may not know that I am the founder of Deensoft, a web design and web application studio here in Ottawa. I get a lot of young people approaching me asking me about how Deensoft works, what our design process is, how we deal with clients. So in the effort to consolidate my thoughts on one page, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about our philosophy and why we do what we do. I hope that other young entrepreneurs can benefit from this.
Before I actually dive into the details, please do note that this isn’t a “one-size fits all” solution. This is our approach, has worked well for us, but we constantly keep improving it. Learning from mistakes is critical.
1. Listen
One of the most important aspect of our approach is to listen to our customers. We really listen. We let you tell us all about the dream application / website that you want. Why? Simple, because you have a great idea. We let you tell us all about your website, your competitors, your brand, you ambitions and your dreams.
2. Brainstorm
Before we start our coding brains, we work closely with you to sketch out your idea on paper, get the architecture strong and visual identity spot on. We create layouts for your application. This helps us to understand and digg deeper in your thoughts and ideas. Worth every effort!
3. Create
Once we have a foundation, it is time to lay the stones and start building. This is where we unleashing our coding monkeys to attack the problem and start working top bottom on your application. Soon your dream becomes reality.
4. Build
Once we have created a solid structure, it is time to decorate it with all the nice stuff that we had promised during the brainstorming. This is where you get to see the site with all the bells and whistles. For your website, we use separate layers of XHTML, CSS and some nifty Javascript.
5. Test
We take quality control seriously. We test and test and then test again, before handing you the green light. This ensures that we are delivering upon our promise and that the customer is going to have fun using their own dream application. Errors are bound to happen, that’s why we do testing, to catch them and kill them.
6. Deploy
Before unleashing your website/application into the wild, we sit down with you to go over every aspect and make sure you are ok with all of it. It is critical to make sure that every detail is in place.
7. Celebrate
If you live in the same town as us, we treat you to a nice lunch or dinner. Our way to celebrate success with you.
One of the key elements in working with any client is to have a structured approach with them. Remember, they are approaching you to help them solve the problem, not increase it. So keeping them in the loop every step of the way is an ideal way to keep things happy.