How we built a scalable design process

This blog post was written by Josh Neimark, Co-founder and CEO of Fix8 Media, and Tina Snyder, Operations Director at Fix8 Media. The Fix8 team has built over 750 websites for their retail and fulfillment clients on the Duda platform.

Translating your client’s vision into the website of their dreams is no easy task. It requires a systematic approach to capturing the client’s needs, goals, and even their personalities to create a website that will truly delight them–and more importantly, solve their problems and use cases.

At Fix8 Media, we’ve honed our design process over the years to run like a well-oiled machine to create stunning, high performing websites for our clients at scale. Our process is built on a system of checks and balances to ensure we deliver quality and efficiency in every project.

Here, we share our process step-by-step–as well as the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Keep in mind, however, that the design process for each agency will be as unique as the clients they serve. This is just one example to inspire you on your journey!

1. Getting to know a prospective client

Our journey with a client typically begins when they reach out to us. This could be through a referral, organic search, or an inquiry submitted on our website. Our website is optimized for SEO, and organic search traffic drives a large volume of our web visits. When a visitor fills out a form on our website, we initiate our CRM funnel using a tool called Dubsado.

We then review the details of the inquiry and reach out to the potential client with the goal of setting up a consult. During the consult, Josh or Tina take the time to get to know the client and their vision for the project. Based on the details gathered on this initial consultation, we put together a proposal in Dubsado for the scope of work. Oftentimes, it’s based on one of the packages we offer, and it always contains our estimate for the work, payment terms, and service agreement. Signing the proposal triggers the project agreement invoice and contract.

2. Client onboarding and intake process

After a client signs the contract and makes the project agreement payment, they are officially onboarded. We get the client set up on Basecamp (the tool we use for project management) and share a personal welcome video from Josh. We also provide a Content Snare intake form for the client to complete. We ask them to consider things like:

Links to websites they like, with brief explanations why
The same for websites they don’t like
A description of their target audience

This intake form guides the client to share their vision for what they want to achieve with their website. However, each client comes with a different level of clarity around what they want out of their website. Some will come with a website that they want to redesign. Others are starting from scratch. Every once in a while, when we’re working with an agency partner to build a site for their client, we’ll get a Figma file, content, etc. all buttoned up and ready to go–but this is somewhat of a unicorn!

However, we still take each client through the same process, whether they come to the table with a clear vision or are just getting started. That’s because once we get to designing the actual site, there will be things the client hadn’t thought of yet. For example, as we share prototypes, they may find that there are new components they like (say for example, a rotating testimonial component) that they hadn’t considered yet.

3. The project kickoff meeting

Once the intake form is complete, we schedule a project kickoff Google Meet for the client with Josh and our client services team. This is where we really get into the details about what they want to achieve with their website. We ask them to bring examples of sites they like and don’t like. What elements do they love? What bothers them about the sites they don’t like? What drives them away from these sites? We do a lot of listening because it can be difficult for clients to articulate what they do and don’t like about website designs. We’re also taking thorough design notes during this meeting that will be shared with the designers in the next step.

Sounds pretty standard so far? After this point is where our process might surprise you.

4. Designing and prototyping the site

You might expect the next step to be wireframes. Many agencies will put together a wireframe for each major page type, but this can be really difficult for clients to review. Without much context, a wireframe can be more frustrating than helpful, and it can really slow down your momentum.

We’ve also found that after the project kick-off, the client is itching and ready to go. So at Fix8 Media, we move forward immediately with prototyping. Josh or a member of our client services team will record a video direction for the prototype and then hand that off to the lead designer on the project to get started. Details will include target audience, overall feel of the aesthetic, and guidelines for the style of images, color palette, and font to be used.

From there the designer puts together the prototype, which includes everything from overall aesthetic to typography to page layouts. We include a few different layout styles for the client to consider, and the process takes about 2 weeks total.

The speed that we’re able to create these prototypes is thanks in part to the web building platform that we use. With Duda, we can spin up prototype sites in record time–and even edit them on the fly during the design review meeting (which we’ll get into in the next section).

Once Josh has reviewed the prototypes from the designer, he’ll give the designer some feedback first. Yes, no, let’s try this or that, etc. When we’re happy with the prototype, Josh will create a Loom video walking the client through the prototype and styling options. We ask the client to take a few days to review this internally. We instruct them to focus just on desktop presentation for now. There’s no need for them to spend time on the mobile and tablet styling until the design is locked in.

5. The design review meeting

Sending the client a video overview of the prototype makes a huge difference to the efficiency of this process. A lot of agencies will go into a design review with a client after weeks of working on the design, and then present the prototypes face to face–finally pulling back the curtain. With this approach, the client just doesn’t have the time to really process what they’re seeing. They don’t have time to put thought into their feedback, which makes it difficult to have a productive meeting that is a good use of everyone’s time.

With a video review, clients have time to collect their thoughts and come prepared to discuss what’s working and not working

By adding a video review step, we’ve found that the clients have time to collect their thoughts and come to the design review meeting well prepared to discuss what’s working and not working about the designs. This allows us to use the design review meeting to work in collaboration with the client to achieve the best results. Keep in mind we don’t like to make decisions for our clients. We like to make them with our clients. And this process allows us to do that–seamlessly.

With the Duda platform, the designer can also easily make changes to the prototype live during the design review meeting, so we can test things out on the fly throughout the conversation. This allows us to build the site dynamically in collaboration with our clients, and really make the most of the hour of time we’re spending together.

6. Revision and iteration

After the design review, we dive into the rest of the revisions, which usually take 3-4 days. We’ll send it back to the client, and 80% of the time we can implement the rest of the changes without requiring another meeting. The remaining 20% of cases are usually much more complex projects that incorporate external data; these may require a couple more interactions and meetings to finalize the design.

For a standard 10-page website project in our shop (our Starter or Full Monty Packages), the time from project kick off meeting to design approval takes about 2-3 weeks. We then spend about 2-3 more weeks flowing in the client’s content and formatting, including SEO when applicable.

7. QA and testing

When the website is signed off, we move forward with our quality assurance (QA) and testing process. And we test everything–from the favicon to the URLs–on every device and every page. We also assign a different designer to QA and test the website (not the same person who created the original design). This fresh set of eyes makes it easier to catch those small details that you become blind to when you’ve spent a lot of time working on the same design.

We also firmly believe that every project needs to be looked at from two perspectives: technical analysis (i.e. is there a favicon?) and a fundamental analysis (i.e. why is the text not centered?). Looking at the site from these two different lenses, each and every time, allows us to comprehensively confirm the quality of every site we build.

As a website production company, we’re constantly juggling multiple projects. Our designers don’t work on 1-2 jobs; instead, they work on 8-12 projects at a time. This works because the projects are at different phases. For some projects, they might be focusing on the design, and for others, they are QA and testing. As a result, the design team always has a variety of work throughout the week.

Lessons Learned

1. Clarify what type of clients you’re looking for—and understand their needs

In developing our design process, we’ve really honed in on the type of client we’re looking for. For one, we look for clients who want to work with us and respect our work. We also look for clients who want to collaborate with us, who we can work with live and also have serious conversations and pushback when needed. And we’ve put processes in place to ensure we give the client opportunities to share their goals and visions for their websites. All of these are key to collaboration and building sites that get results.

2. Invest in the right people and empower them to succeed

Another thing we’ve learned is how important it is to invest in the right people. For example, we’ve recently hired a Client Services Lead to work closely with Josh and Tina, learn from them, and participate in the day-to-day management of Fix8. This is key as we continue to grow, and the directors need to offload some of the management responsibilities to capable team members so they can focus on business strategy and opportunities.

3. Focus on Your uniqueness

Finally, we touched on this at the beginning, but it can’t be stressed enough that each agency is unique. Your clients are unique, so lean into that. You don’t have to be like everyone else. This all goes back to understanding who your ideal client is and the unique value that you can offer them.

Closing thoughts

Our design process is a unique and ever-evolving approach that has been built on collaboration, processes, efficiency, and a keen understanding of our clients' needs. With Duda, we've managed to scale our model and deliver high-quality, custom website designs to our clients.

Core web vitals: What agencies need to know in 2026

By Shawn Davis • April 1, 2026

Core Web Vitals aren't new, Google introduced them in 2020 and made them a ranking factor in 2021. But the questions keep coming, because the metrics keep changing and the stakes keep rising. Reddit's SEO communities were still debating their impact as recently as January 2026, and for good reason: most agencies still don't have a clear, repeatable way to measure, diagnose, and fix them for clients. This guide cuts through the noise. Here's what Core Web Vitals actually measure, what good scores look like today, and how to improve them—without needing a dedicated performance engineer on every project. What Core Web Vitals measure Google evaluates three user experience signals to determine whether a page feels fast, stable, and responsive: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the biggest visible element on a page — usually a hero image or headline — to load. Google considers anything under 2.5 seconds good. Above 4 seconds is poor. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) replaced First Input Delay (FID) in March 2024. Where FID measures the delay before a user's first click is registered, INP tracks the full responsiveness of every interaction across the page session. A good INP score is under 200 milliseconds. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability — how much page elements unexpectedly move while content loads. A score below 0.1 is good. Higher scores signal that images, ads, or embeds are pushing content around after load, which frustrates users and tanks conversions. These three metrics are a subset of Google's broader Page Experience signals, which also include HTTPS, safe browsing, and mobile usability. Core Web Vitals are the ones you can most directly control and improve. Why your clients' scores may still be poor Core Web Vitals scores vary dramatically by platform, hosting, and how a site was built. Some of the most common culprits agencies encounter: Heavy above-the-fold content . A homepage with an autoplay video, a full-width image slider, and a chat widget loading simultaneously will fail LCP every time. The browser has to resolve all of those resources before it can paint the largest element. Unstable image dimensions . When an image loads without defined width and height attributes, the browser doesn't reserve space for it. It renders the surrounding text, then jumps it down when the image appears. That jump is CLS. Third-party scripts blocking the main thread . Analytics pixels, ad tags, and live chat tools run on the browser's main thread. When they stack up, every click and tap has to wait in line — driving INP scores up. A single slow third-party script can push an otherwise clean site into "needs improvement" territory. Too many web fonts . Each font family and weight is a separate network request. A page loading four font files before rendering any text will fail LCP, especially on mobile connections. Unoptimized images . JPEGs and PNGs served at full resolution, without compression or modern formats like WebP or AVIF, add unnecessary weight to every page load. How to measure them accurately There are two types of Core Web Vitals data you should be looking at for every client: Lab data comes from tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and WebPageTest. It simulates page loads in controlled conditions. Lab data is useful for diagnosing specific issues and testing fixes before you deploy them. Field data (also called Real User Monitoring, or RUM) comes from actual users visiting the site. Google collects this through the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) and surfaces it in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. Field data is what Google actually uses as a ranking signal — and it often looks worse than lab data because it reflects real-world device and connection variability. If your client's site has enough traffic, you'll see field data in Search Console under Core Web Vitals. This is your baseline. Lab data helps you understand why the scores are what they are. For clients with low traffic who don't have enough field data to appear in CrUX, you'll be working primarily with lab scores. Set that expectation early so clients understand that improvements may not immediately show up in Search Console. Practical fixes that move the needle Fix LCP: get the hero image loading first The single most effective LCP improvement is adding fetchpriority="high" to the hero image tag. This tells the browser to prioritize that resource over everything else. If you're using a background CSS image for the hero, switch it to anelement — background images aren't discoverable by the browser's preload scanner. Also check whether your hosting serves images through a CDN with caching. Edge delivery dramatically reduces the time-to-first-byte, which feeds directly into LCP. Fix CLS: define dimensions for every media element Every image, video, and ad slot on the page needs explicit width and height attributes in the HTML. If you're using responsive CSS, you can still define the aspect ratio with aspect-ratio in CSS while leaving the actual size fluid. The key is giving the browser enough information to reserve space before the asset loads. Avoid inserting content above existing content after page load. This is common with cookie banners, sticky headers that change height, and dynamically loaded ad units. If you need to show these, anchor them to fixed positions so they don't push content around. Fix INP: reduce what's competing for the main thread Audit third-party scripts and defer or remove anything that isn't essential. Tools like WebPageTest's waterfall view or Chrome DevTools Performance panel show you exactly which scripts are blocking the main thread and for how long. Load chat widgets, analytics, and ad tags asynchronously and after the page's critical path has resolved. For most clients, moving non-essential scripts to load after the DOMContentLoaded event is a meaningful INP improvement with no visible impact on the user experience. For websites with heavy JavaScript — particularly those built on frameworks with large client-side bundles — consider breaking up long tasks into smaller chunks using the browser's Scheduler API or simply splitting components so the main thread isn't locked for more than 50 milliseconds at a stretch. What platforms handle automatically One of the practical advantages of building on a platform optimized for performance is that many of these fixes are applied by default. Duda, for example, automatically serves WebP images, lazy loads below-the-fold content, minifies CSS, and uses efficient cache policies for static assets. As of May 2025, 82% of sites built on Duda pass all three Core Web Vitals metrics — the highest recorded pass rate among major website platforms. That baseline matters when you're managing dozens or hundreds of client sites. It means you're starting each project close to or at a passing score, rather than diagnosing and patching a broken foundation. How much do Core Web Vitals actually affect rankings? Honestly, they're a tiebreaker — not a primary signal. Google has been clear that content quality and relevance still dominate ranking decisions. A well-optimized site with thin, irrelevant content won't outrank a content-rich competitor just because its CLS is 0.05. What Core Web Vitals do affect is the user experience that supports those rankings. Pages with poor LCP scores have measurably higher bounce rates. Sites with high CLS lose users mid-session. Those behavioral signals — time on page, return visits, conversions — are things search engines can observe and incorporate. The practical argument for fixing Core Web Vitals isn't just "because Google said so." It's that faster, more stable pages convert better. Every second of LCP improvement can reduce bounce rates by 15–20% depending on the industry and device mix. For client sites that monetize through leads or eCommerce, that's a revenue argument, not just an SEO argument. A repeatable process for agencies Audit every new site before launch. Run PageSpeed Insights and record LCP, INP, and CLS scores for both mobile and desktop. Flag anything in the "needs improvement" or "poor" range before the client sees the live site. Check Search Console monthly for existing clients. The Core Web Vitals report surfaces issues as they appear in field data. Catching a regression early — before it compounds — is significantly easier than explaining a traffic drop after the fact. Document what you've improved. Clients rarely see Core Web Vitals scores on their own. A monthly one-page performance summary showing before/after scores builds credibility and makes your technical work visible. Prioritize mobile. Google uses mobile-first indexing, and field data shows that mobile CWV scores are almost always worse than desktop. If you only have time to optimize one version, do mobile first. Core Web Vitals aren't a one-time fix. Platforms change, new scripts get added, campaigns bring in new widgets. Build the audit into your workflow and treat it like any other ongoing deliverable, and you'll stay ahead of the issues before they affect your clients' rankings. Duda's platform is built with Core Web Vitals performance in mind. Explore how it handles image optimization, script management, and site speed automatically — so your team spends less time debugging and more time building.

Why systems, not tools, are the future of vertical SaaS

By Ilana Brudo • March 31, 2026

Vertical SaaS must transition from tools to an AI-powered Vertical Operating System (vOS). Learn to leverage context, end tech sprawl, and maximize retention.

Maximizing SaaS growth with an API-driven website builder

By Shawn Davis • March 27, 2026

Automate client management, instant site generation, and data synchronization with an API-driven website builder to create a scalable growth engine for your SaaS platform.