here's what we actually do before touching any design at
@watermelonshstd.
we map all the screens and document every user flow end-to-end. every edge case gets flagged before dev even opens their laptop. we make sure every state the product can be in is accounted for and that the founder and the team are fully aligned on what's actually being built before anyone touches anything.
most agencies skip this phase because it doesn't look like progress on a timeline.
but we've seen what happens when you skip it.
Week 8: The founder and dev both thought they were building the same thing. they weren't.
two weeks of flows saves months of rework. every time.