Project overview
The founders had validated demand for a compliance tracking tool for small businesses through interviews and a waiting list.
They needed a working, billable product quickly, built properly enough to grow.
Big idea, fixed budget
Three constraints shaped the project:
A long wish list
The initial feature list would have taken a year to build.
Fixed funding
The budget had to cover launch and early improvements.
Billing from day one
The product needed subscriptions and invoices at launch.
What success looked like
- Launch a paid productwithin three months.
- Keep scope to one core journeyplus billing and admin.
- Convert waiting-list usersto paying customers.
Our approach, step by step
- 1
Scope Weeks 1–2
Prioritised features with the founders using MoSCoW and agreed a fixed price per phase.
- 2
Design Weeks 2–4
Designed the core journey, onboarding and billing screens.
- 3
Build Weeks 4–11
Built the web app in two-week sprints with Stripe subscriptions and an admin dashboard.
- 4
Launch Week 12
Launched to the waiting list with onboarding emails and analytics in place.
First three months after launch
Product metrics in the first three months.
| Metric | Month 1 | Month 3 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial sign-ups | 140 | 210 | ▲ 50% |
| Trial to paid | 14% | 19% | ▲ 5 pts |
| Paying customers | 20 | 78 | ▲ 3.9x |
| Uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% | ● steady |
The results
Paying customers grew month on month after launch.
“We had a working, paid product in twelve weeks, and a demo every fortnight along the way.”