Six months. Twenty-four weeks. Eleven modules.
The internal operational reference for running an install engagement end to end. Pre-engagement through handover. Every week scoped, every artifact named, every quality gate and common failure flagged. It exists so installs don't depend on improvisation.
The install runs from sale to handover on a weekly heartbeat. This is the operating reference for delivering it consistently: every week scoped, every artifact accounted for, every quality gate named, every common failure flagged. It exists so installs don't depend on improvisation.
These are the reason the install is structured the way it is. Hold them, and the rest of this manual holds with them.
Each active client takes 4 to 6 hours of Oto's time per week: the weekly session, async support, execution direction, and review. Five clients at five hours is 25 hours a week on delivery.
Roughly 15 working hours a week for everything else: content production, platform development, retainer client work, sawdust products, business operations, and life.
If client time creeps above 5 hours a week, something has gone wrong: scope creep, an unprepared client, execution bouncing back, unclear deliverables. Diagnose and reset, don't absorb.
Everything that happens after a signed proposal and before the kickoff session. Setup, deposit, workspace, calibration. Done right, the first session opens to a prepared environment, not a scramble.
Each week has the same shape regardless of what month you're in. Every active client, every week. The module changes; the rhythm doesn't.
60 to 90 min, video, always with Oto. 5 min review, 40 min the module's strategic work, 10 min what gets done and by whom, 5 min blockers, 5 min confirm next session.
Work happens. Async touches on Loom or message. Execution partners or team deliver against the week's brief.
Short message or Loom: what shipped, what's next, anything to decide before Monday. Maintains momentum, prevents Monday surprises.
Every decision, draft, and artifact filed in the client's BXS BOS workspace as it happens. The workspace is the source of truth. Email is not.
Eleven modules sequenced across three phases on a weekly cadence. Each month closes with a defined set of artifacts in the workspace. Phase 1 closes before identity begins, Phase 2 before commercial work, Phase 3 with the Client BOS Portal handover.
Kickoff, 2 hrs: 6-month arc, workspace, cadence. Brand Audit kicked off.
Brand Audit closed and scored. Business Design intake begins.
Business Design closed. Brand Clarity intake. Audience hypothesis.
Audience defined. Positioning workshop. Differentiation argued.
Brand Snapshot v1 signed. Strategic foundation locked.
Brand Strategy. Goals, growth thesis, 12-month plan.
Messaging Architecture. Voice rules and key messages.
Phase 01 close. Gate 01 signed. Identity intake scheduled.
Identity intake. Brief, three concept territories.
Three concepts presented. One direction chosen.
Refinement. Logo, type, colour locked.
Identity close. Application suite, guidelines, AI brand pack.
Sitemap and IA from strategy. Wireframes for every page.
Pages designed on the new identity. Copy v1 in place.
Build on staging. CMS configured. Lead capture wired.
Launch. Live on production. Analytics. Gate 02.
Offer audit. Revenue per offer. Pricing logic surfaced.
New offer architecture. Pricing restructured.
Funnel mapped end to end. Conversion architecture.
Commercial architecture locked. Founder approval.
Content Engine. Editorial framework, channel playbooks.
AI workflows configured to voice. Team trained.
Intelligence Layer. Dashboards, signals, feedback loops.
Portal handover, 2 hrs, sign-off. Gate 03. Retainer talk.
Five modules. Two months. The strategic foundation gets built and locked before any visual work begins. Phase 1 closes with a signed Brand Snapshot and a written Brand Strategy.
Brand Audit names the gaps. Business Design surfaces the model underneath. Brand Clarity locks position and audience. Brand Strategy writes the plan. Messaging Architecture translates everything into deployable language.
Phase 2 (Identity) does not begin until Gate 01 is signed. Skipping this gate is the single biggest cause of identity rework downstream.
Two modules. Two months. The visible brand gets designed and built on top of the locked strategic foundation. Phase 2 closes with the new identity in production and the new website live.
Brand Identity gets four weeks. Concepts, refinement, application suite, guidelines, AI brand pack. Website + Digital gets four weeks. Wireframes, design, copy, build, launch.
Phase 3 (commercial architecture and operating systems) does not begin until Gate 02 is signed and the site is live on production.
Four modules. Two months. The commercial layer rebuilt. The content engine running. The intelligence layer live. Phase 3 closes with the Client BOS Portal handover and the start of the retainer conversation.
Offer Design Lab restructures the commercial architecture. Growth Funnel maps attention to revenue end to end. Content Engine sets up the editorial and AI workflows. Intelligence Layer installs the dashboards and feedback loops.
The install ends here. The retainer begins (or doesn't) based on the conversation in week 24. Either way, Gate 03 closes the engagement formally.
By the end of Month 6, the client has received and the workspace contains all twenty. Every artifact maps to a module and lands in its phase folder.
Every install gets the same folder structure. Same naming, same hierarchy. Predictability across engagements is what lets the BXS team move between clients without friction. The Sessions folder is the institutional memory; the Handover folder holds what the client keeps.
Enough structure to hold momentum, no ceremony that doesn't earn its place. The cadence section sets the week's shape; this sets the channels and where the truth lives.
Five patterns show up across nearly every install. Naming them protects the engagement. Each one looks reasonable in isolation. Together they shift the project off its rails.
Client asks for adjacent design work mid-engagement. Pitch deck, business card, social tile, email signature, internal handbook cover. Small in isolation. Add up to weeks of cumulative work.
Site goes live. Client wants color shifts, copy tweaks, layout adjustments. Always feels small. Always wants to be free. Always lasts longer than the original build if allowed to.
Client launches something new at month 3 (product, service line, partnership) and wants brand work for it inside the install scope. The install was sold for the existing business, not the new venture.
Someone joins the client team mid-engagement. Client asks BXS to onboard them to the brand work-in-progress. Looks like a 30-minute call. Becomes a recurring time sink.
An investor, board member, major client, or family member gets pulled into a review session late. Re-litigates decisions made weeks ago. Resets work in motion.
Patterns that, if unaddressed, cause the install to fail or degrade. Naming them in the workspace lets the BXS team flag them early instead of explaining them after the damage is done.
Client reopens Phase 1 decisions in Phase 2 or 3. Audience shifts. Positioning gets re-litigated. Identity rework follows. Timeline collapses.
Founder skips three sessions in a row. Proxies attend. Decisions don't get made. Work piles up. Sessions become catch-up briefings.
Leadership change mid-engagement. New CMO, new board chair, new partner. Brings new opinions. Wants to relitigate decisions or pivot direction.
Client signals cash flow tightness. Asks to renegotiate, defer, or compress. The install was scoped to be financially sustainable for them. Something has changed.
Small requests get absorbed without flagging. Cumulative extra work eats into proper module time. Quality suffers. Resentment builds on the BXS side.
Phase closes informally. No written sign-off. Next phase begins. Decisions from the unclosed phase get reopened later, but now in a more expensive part of the build.
At Month 6, three things happen in sequence. The install closes cleanly whether or not the retainer follows.
2 hours. Confirm the founder and team can access everything they need. Sign off on completion.
Where the system gets pressure-tested against real signals and iterates toward resonance. R12k to R18k a month depending on scope. Cancellable monthly.
The install formally closes. They retain workspace access, but it's now a static archive. Retainer begins as a separate contract if applicable.
For clients who don't opt in immediately: keep the workspace accessible for 30 days post-install. They can opt in later within that window without reactivation friction.
The rules of the install workflow. Hold them firmly.
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | June 2026 | Consolidation. Per-week phase rhythm and integrated quality gates from the v4 layout, joined with the capacity feature, month calendar, artifact registry, communication rhythm, handover, and operating constraints. Workspace tree rebuilt to reflow on mobile. |
| 1.0 | June 2026 | Initial operational workflow. Pre-engagement, the 6-month weekly cadence, per-module workflow, workspace structure, communication rhythm, quality gates, scope creep patterns, handover, and operating constraints. |