The best client engagements feel less like a transaction and more like a project the client and the agency are doing together. Here is why that matters and how we structure for it.
Service design has a phrase for this: *value co-creation*. The customer isn't a passive recipient of value the provider produces; the customer is part of the production. The waiter doesn't just "deliver food" — the dining experience is co-created by waiter and diner. The doctor doesn't just "treat" — the patient's compliance is half the cure.
The same applies to building a website.
Why pure "we make it for you" usually disappoints
Here is the failure mode we've watched a dozen times before deciding never to work this way:
- Client signs a contract.
- Agency goes away for two months, comes back with a polished design.
- Client looks at it, doesn't quite recognise themselves in it, struggles to articulate why.
- Three rounds of revisions later, both sides are tired and the result is a compromise nobody loves.
The problem isn't that the agency was bad at design. The problem is that the agency was missing thousands of small inputs only the client carries — what their best customers actually ask, the language they use in person, the photos they have on their phone but never shared, the seasonality nobody outside the business sees.
How co-creation looks in practice
The work we're proudest of started looking different from the kickoff call. Some of what we do differently:
- **Working sessions instead of presentations.** A two-hour shared screen where we sketch a layout together beats a three-week reveal. The client steers; we type.
- **Content first, design second.** We ask the client to send us their best emails to customers, their favourite case studies, their most-asked FAQ. The site is built around that real material.
- **Decisions in the open.** Every architectural choice is captured in plain language ("we're going with PayloadCMS because you'll edit content yourself; here's the trade-off") rather than presented as expertise.
- **The handover starts on day one.** The client gets a Notion page with everything they need to run the site themselves the day we hand it over. The handover isn't a final gate; it's a continuous practice.
The questionnaire is co-creation, day zero
Our /get-started questionnaire isn't a lead form. It's the first co-creation step. By the time the client hits "submit", they've already named their job-to-be-done, mapped their needs, and stated their timeline. We arrive at the kickoff with a pre-shared understanding instead of starting from blank.
That's also why we ask for the budget bracket honestly. A client who tells us "I have under 2 000 €" and gets the appropriate Starter recommendation has co-created the scope. A client we've coaxed into a Premium tier without honest budget input is a recipe for the bad failure mode above.
The reading list
For the underlying theory:
- Value Co-Creation: Concept and Contexts of Application and Study — academic but readable; Vargo & Lusch's service-dominant logic in plain English.
- The Service Innovation Handbook — the Stickdorn et al. textbook on doing service design.
- Steal Like an Artist — Austin Kleon on creative collaboration; not framed as service design but completely applicable.
If you'd like to start a project that feels like a working session, not a quote-and-deliver, the questionnaire is the first step. We'll see you on the call.