The Maxx Effect process — five phases, no surprises
Discovery, scoping, build sprints, launch, post-launch care. Fixed scope, weekly check-ins, written commitments. Most agency engagements break on communication or on scope creep — we built the process around making both impossible.
How does a Maxx Effect engagement actually run?
Every engagement runs through five phases: a free 30-60 minute discovery call (Phase 1), a written fixed-scope proposal within 3 business days (Phase 2), 1-2 week build sprints with staging-URL deliveries (Phase 3), a scheduled launch with 24-hour on-call support (Phase 4), and 30 days of post-launch tuning included (Phase 5). Weekly 30-minute check-ins throughout, async access to the actual person doing the work between calls.
What we never do: pricing-on-application, mystery weeks of silence followed by a big reveal, scope-creep hourly billing, three-week delays surfaced the week before launch, vendor-lock-in clauses in the contract, account managers between you and the engineer. Six principles enforced on every project, listed in detail below.
Every price referenced is published on the relevant service page — web development, AI automation, HubSpot consulting, and the rest. Browse those for tier-level pricing; this page explains how we work, not what we charge.
Five phases, no surprises
A scannable map of the engagement. Each phase below has its detail card — but this is the shape of the work end-to-end.
Discovery
WEEK 0Scope + proposal
WEEK 0-1Build sprints
WEEKS 1-NLaunch
LAUNCH WEEKPost-launch care
WEEKS N+1 to N+4The five-phase process
Discovery
A 30-60 minute discovery call to understand the business, the current site or system, the team, the budget, and the timeline. We listen 80% of the time. End of the call you have a written one-page summary of what we heard back, what we recommend, and whether we are the right team for the job. Free, no commitment.
Scope + proposal
Within 3 business days of the discovery call we deliver a written proposal: scope statement, fixed price, milestone schedule with delivery dates, communication cadence, and what is explicitly OUT of scope. You sign or reject as-is — we do not negotiate scope after delivery. Half down to start, half on launch.
Build sprints
Work happens in 1-2 week sprints with a written delivery at the end of each. You see actual progress on a staging URL every sprint, not slides or wireframes. Weekly 30-minute check-in calls plus async Slack/email between calls. No mystery weeks of silence followed by a big reveal at the end.
Launch
Final QA pass across mobile, desktop, and accessibility. DNS cutover scheduled at an off-peak time you choose. 24-hour on-call window post-launch in case anything breaks. Site is live, schema validates clean, analytics fire, Core Web Vitals are green from day one — not three weeks of post-launch fixes.
Post-launch care
30 days of post-launch tuning included on every build — bug fixes, copy tweaks, analytics walkthrough, training session for your team. After 30 days you can opt into a monthly maintenance retainer ($199/mo) or take the keys and run it in-house. Your call, no auto-roll. Code is yours, hosting is yours, domain is yours.
Six operating principles, enforced on every project
These are not aspirational values for a careers page — they are the rules we organize the agency around. If we ever violate one of these, the client is the first to know.
Fixed scope, fixed price, written commitment
Every engagement gets a one-page written scope before any code ships. Mid-project change requests are scoped as Change Orders with their own fixed price — never silent hourly billing creep. If we underestimate a task, that is our problem; we eat the time and ship on the date we committed to.
Weekly check-ins, never silent
30-minute weekly call every Tuesday or Wednesday at a recurring time you pick. Async Slack/email between calls. You always know what is shipping this week, what shipped last week, and where the project sits against the committed timeline. No surprises at the end.
Direct access to the person doing the work
Not a project manager, not an account rep — the person writing the code answers your questions directly. Small agencies should act like the small agencies they are; bigger ones add layers we deliberately do not. Response time is hours, not days, during business hours.
Your code, your repo, your data, your domain
Every line of code lives in a Git repository under your control from day one — not at the end as a parting gift. Your domain stays in your registrar, your hosting account is in your name, your database lives where you want it. If we ever part ways, you take everything with you. No proprietary platforms, no vendor lock-in clauses.
Published pricing, published timelines
Real dollar figures and real week counts live on the service pages. Pricing-on-application is the marker of an agency that wants to size you up before quoting. The published numbers go in writing before invoicing.
Bad news first, before it ruins the timeline
If a project is going to slip we tell you the week we know, not the week before launch. We have hit every committed launch date on the engagements that mattered, and the ones where we slipped, we ate the cost and communicated early. The hard part of project management is bad news — that is the work.
Four communication patterns that keep projects on track
Most failed agency engagements break on communication, not on craft. We over-invest in the boring rhythm because the boring rhythm is what prevents the catastrophic surprise.
Recurring slot, same day same time every week. Reviews what shipped, what is shipping, and any blockers. Recorded and shared if you cannot make it.
Slack channel or shared email thread. Questions answered same-day during business hours, next-business-day worst case.
1-2 week cadence. Working version on a staging URL — clickable, real data, not slides. Demo recording shared if anyone misses.
Each milestone has a written acceptance criteria checklist. You sign off or send feedback in writing. No hand-wave "looks good" approvals.
Want to see what a real proposal looks like? Book a 30-minute discovery — you walk away with one whether or not we work together.
Book a Discovery CallWhat you own when the project ends
We deliberately structure every engagement so you can fire us tomorrow and keep everything we built. No proprietary platforms, no vendor-lock-in clauses, no "our hosting only" constraints, no "our domain registrar only" constraints. The minute the final invoice clears, the full asset list is yours.
- The codebase — full source in a Git repository under your account (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket), with commit history from day one
- The domain — in your registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, whichever you choose), paid by you, transferred at any time
- The hosting account — in your name (Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, AWS, whichever fits the project), billed to you, fully detachable
- All third-party accounts — Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Business Profile, Stripe, HubSpot, Mailgun, Twilio — every account is created in your name with you as primary owner
- Written documentation — README, deploy runbook, environment-variable inventory, admin guide, any custom-integration documentation
- Training recordings — every team training session is recorded and stored in your shared drive
Ready to see this process in action on your project?
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. Worst case you walk away with a written one-page summary and a recommendation. Best case we are the right team and we start the proposal within 3 business days. Want to see what this process shipped? Read the 7,000-case immigration law firm CRM case study.
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