How do I hire Dan Heselton?

Submit a project inquiry at https://danheselton.com/start with your project type, budget, timeline, and goals. Email dan@danheselton.com works too. Typical reply: 24 to 48 business hours.

Where does Dan Heselton work?

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and remote clients across the United States.

How does Dan Heselton run client projects?

Projects move through structured phases: discovery and scope, design and structure, build and integration, then launch and handoff, with one person accountable at each step.

What happens in the first week of a project?

The first week focuses on goals, audience, sitemap, and technical constraints so design and build decisions stay tied to measurable outcomes.

Studio process How a project actually runs

You should know what you’re paying for before you pay for it.

Five phases. One person accountable for each of them. The work does not get handed off after discovery. This page explains what happens, when, and why the order matters.

Webflow
React / Next.js
Astro
Sanity CMS
Supabase
Shopify

The five phases

Timing shifts with scope. The order doesn’t.

Discovery

Before anything is designed, the project needs a clear picture of who uses the site, what they are trying to do, and what a successful outcome looks like in six months. This is a working session, not a questionnaire to fill in alone.

Scope document with clear boundaries
Audience and content map
Success criteria you can measure
Shared definition of done

1–2

weeks

What you bring

Access to your existing site, any analytics you have, and an honest answer to: what does this site need to do that it currently doesn’t.

Strategy & IA

Sitemap, page hierarchy, content types, and CMS logic. For product work, this is where user flows get defined before any pixel is placed. Getting structure wrong costs more to fix in design than it does to get right here.

Sitemap and URL structure
Page templates and content types
CMS field plan
User flow diagrams (product projects)

weeks

What you bring

A list of everything the site needs to cover, who publishes it, and how often content changes.

Design

Visual system, responsive layouts, interaction design. Reviews are structured so feedback stays concrete — not “I don’t love it” but “this heading needs more weight on mobile.” The strongest ideas survive because the weaker ones get named.

Full Figma design files
Desktop and mobile layouts
Component and type system
Interaction notes for build

3–4

weeks

What you bring

Two rounds of feedback. Specific is better than general — “the hero image feels too dark” is easier to act on than “something feels off.”

Build

Front-end implementation with accessibility, performance, and editor ergonomics built in from the start. The platform follows the project — Webflow, React, Next.js, Astro, Shopify, or a hybrid. Every build is set up so a non-developer can update content without filing a ticket.

Production-ready code or Webflow publish
CMS connected and populated
Performance and accessibility baseline
Editor documentation

Varies

by scope

What you bring

Hosting credentials, domain access, and final content. Build goes faster when content is ready.

Launch

QA, content review, analytics and form wiring, DNS, and a documented handoff. Launch is a milestone, not a disappearing act. You leave with everything needed to run the site.

Full QA across devices and browsers
Analytics and tracking configured
Handoff documentation
30-day post-launch check-in

1–2

weeks

What you bring

Final approval on content and design. The domain. Anyone who needs CMS or hosting access before handoff.

Worth knowing upfront

Some things I will tell you no to.

Not every project is a fit. If the scope isn’t clear enough to estimate, I’ll say so and suggest how to get there first. If a platform choice will cost you more to maintain than it saves in build time, I’ll tell you before you’re locked in. The goal is a site that works for you in two years, not one that ships fast and needs a rebuild in twelve months.

Common questions

Can we skip discovery if I already know what I want?

Rarely. Discovery is short — one to two weeks — and it almost always surfaces something that would have cost more to fix in phase three. The clients who most want to skip it are the ones who benefit most from it.

Do you work on retainer after launch?

Yes. Ongoing support is a separate service — updates, fixes, CMS changes, and small improvements on a monthly basis. Most clients move to this after launch.

What if my project doesn’t fit neatly into five phases?

Then we adjust. This is the default shape. Product work, redesigns with existing content, and build-only projects all run differently. The first conversation sorts it out.

From clients who have been through it

Transportation · Webflow

Taking content from our old website and current materials and adding updated content that we could edit was one of the most helpful parts of the process.

Jenny Amory

Rockport Exchange

Local service · Astro + Sanity

The site structure made sense from the start. We didn’t have to explain our business twice — by the time design started, it felt like he already understood how we work.

Matthew Cosentino

Rockport Landscape

SaaS · React

The handoff documentation meant our team could make changes on day one without filing a support request. That was the part I didn’t expect.

Ridereserve.io

Starting a project

Tell me what you’re working on.

Most projects start with a short conversation — what you are trying to fix, the timeline, and where the site or product needs to be in six months. If it is a fit, you will get a clear proposal. If not, you will still leave with a useful next step.

Start a project

Phases, one rhythm

Person, start to finish

Next availability