Development Client Onboarding Guide

The Development pathway is a collaborative retainer. You choose priorities, and we advise and deliver within a monthly time budget.

There is no Performance Gateway and no uplift guarantee. Performance reporting is provided as insight, not as a contractual success threshold.

What is included

• StrategyFive Platform (managed WordPress and WooCommerce environment).
• A monthly time budget that can be used across CRO analysis, development, QA, releases, performance and stability work, tracking and measurement, and reporting.
• CRO expertise to help prioritise the highest impact work, even when the work is primarily development.
• Transparent time tracking and regular reporting.

What is not included

• Uncapped work. The monthly fee is a budget cap.
• Work beyond the monthly time budget without written approval.
• Any guarantee of a specific uplift in revenue per visitor or conversion rate.

How time is tracked

• Time is tracked in 30 minute increments.
• Planning, meetings, QA, releases, and reporting all count towards the time budget.

Billing

• Billing is monthly in arrears.
• Invoices are issued by email.

Rollover, borrowing, and overage

• Unused time can roll over into the next month only.
• You can borrow up to one month forward if needed.
• If you terminate, unused hours are refunded.
• Work beyond the time budget is only completed with written approval, and is billed at £75 per hour plus VAT.

Typical tiers (confirmed in your Order Form)

• Essentials: £1,750 per month plus VAT (20 hours)
• Growth: £2,750 per month plus VAT (35 hours)
• Scale: £4,500 per month plus VAT (65 hours)
• Enterprise: £9,000 per month plus VAT (135 hours)
• Platform Only: £250 per month plus VAT (no time budget)

Kickoff and month one plan

We use the kickoff to align on priorities, workflow, and release safety so work moves steadily.

Who should attend

• Your decision maker (required).
• A technical contact (internal developer or agency).
• A marketing or eCommerce lead who owns trading priorities.

What to prepare

• Your month one priorities and any deadlines.
• Your commercial calendar (promotions, peak dates, planned launches).
• Any known constraints (third party dependencies, key integrations, security restrictions).
• Your preferred approval process and who signs off releases.
• Your preferred deployment window and any blackout periods.

What we decide on the call

• Month one priorities and how we will sequence the backlog.
• Definition of done for releases (acceptance criteria, QA, sign off).
• Release windows and any blackout periods.
• How time tracking and reporting will be shared.
• Whether a StrategyFive Platform migration is required (and who controls DNS).

We keep access requests focused and prefer read only access where possible. Some work requires admin access, especially in WordPress.

Access checklist

Must have to start

• GA4 access (required for performance measurement and reporting).
• WordPress and WooCommerce admin access on production.
• Current hosting access or a clear point of contact (for platform migration and performance work).
• DNS access or a clear point of contact (if a DNS change is required).

Nice to have (helps us move faster)

• Google Tag Manager access (if you use it).
• Google Search Console access (if available).
• Behaviour analytics: Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar (if you already use it, or want us to install it).
• Payment gateway or checkout provider access (to validate payment flows and logs).
• Key integrations access (email marketing, fulfilment, subscriptions, search, reviews).

How to share GA4 access

The GA4 interface changes from time to time, but the steps are usually:

• Open GA4 and select the correct account and property.
• Go to Admin.
• Open Access management (Account access management or Property access management).
• Add the StrategyFive email address we provide.
• Assign a role. Viewer is the minimum to start. We may request a higher role if we need to configure events or conversions.

How to create a WordPress admin user

• In WordPress, go to Users, then Add New.
• Add the StrategyFive email address we provide.
• Role: Administrator.
• If you use two factor authentication or IP restrictions, tell us so we can set it up correctly.
• Please avoid shared logins. A dedicated user makes access safer and easier to remove later.

Named accounts and credential handling

We ask for a dedicated, named admin user rather than shared logins. This keeps access auditable and removable.

We agree a secure method for sharing credentials during onboarding and only share access with the people who need it for delivery.

If you use a security plugin that restricts logins, tell us before applying restrictions so we can avoid lockouts.

Integrations and risk questionnaire

Please answer these in writing. Short answers are fine. The goal is to avoid surprises during testing, migration, and go live.

• Payments: which payment gateways are live (for example Stripe, PayPal, Klarna, Clearpay), and are there any custom checkout fields or scripts?
• Shipping and fulfilment: which shipping plugins or fulfilment tools are used (for example ShipStation, Linnworks, custom 3PL)? Any webhooks?
• Tax and invoicing: do you use a tax service (for example Avalara) or custom VAT rules?
• Subscriptions or memberships: do you sell subscriptions, memberships, or renewals? Which plugin powers it?
• Search and merchandising: do you use a non standard search tool, filters, personalisation, or a product recommendation engine?
• Email: how are transactional emails sent (default WooCommerce, SMTP plugin, external provider)? Any restrictions on staging?
• Reviews, referrals, loyalty: which platforms are installed (reviews, loyalty points, referrals, affiliates)?
• ERP or stock: is inventory managed in an ERP or external system? Any stock sync rules we must not break?
• Security and access: do you use a firewall, IP allow list, bot protection, or login restrictions that could block our work?
• Peak dates and release rules: any blackout periods where we should not deploy? What is your preferred deployment day and time?
• Anything else: anything else that could break checkout, payments, order emails, or fulfilment if we clone or change the site?

Critical flows checklist for QA

Critical flows are the customer actions that must work for you to trade. We use this list for regression testing before releases and before go live.

Tick what applies to your store, and add anything missing:

• Browse categories, use filters, open a product page
• View a simple product and a variable product
• Add to cart
• Apply a coupon or discount code
• Estimate shipping and taxes
• Checkout as guest
• Checkout as logged in user
• Payment method 1 (your main gateway)
• Payment method 2 (secondary gateway, if used)
• Order confirmation page loads correctly
• Key emails send correctly (order received, processing, completed, refund)
• Account creation and password reset
• Returns, cancellations, or exchanges (if applicable)
• Anything else specific to your store

All clients run on the StrategyFive Platform. It is the managed WordPress and WooCommerce environment that underpins both pathways.

What the StrategyFive Platform includes

• Managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, maintenance, and security updates.
• Staging environments so we can build and test before going live.
• Backups and restore capability to support safe release practices.
• Monitoring and alerting so issues are detected quickly.
• Performance tooling and configurations tuned for WooCommerce.

Staging first

We build and test changes in staging first, then deploy to live during an agreed window. Staging is configured to reduce risk, for example:

• Search engines blocked from indexing
• Customer emails disabled where possible
• Payments disabled or switched to a safe test mode
• Analytics disabled to avoid contaminating reporting

Typical go live process (platform migration)

If we are migrating your store onto the StrategyFive Platform, this is the usual sequence:

1. Clone: we take a copy of your live store onto the StrategyFive Platform, using appropriate migration tooling.
2. Harden: we apply security, caching, performance configuration, and create a staging environment for changes.
3. Test: we run QA against the critical flows checklist, validate analytics, and validate checkout (including a test order where appropriate).
4. Client sign off: you test staging and confirm you are happy to proceed.
5. Freeze: we agree a quiet go live window and ask for a short content and code freeze to reduce risk.
6. Sync: just before cutover, we sync key live changes where appropriate (for example recent orders or customer data).
7. Cutover: DNS is updated to point the domain to the new environment. We aim for minimal downtime, but DNS propagation can vary by provider.
8. Monitor: we monitor uptime, error logs, and checkout closely after go live.

DNS options

There are two common approaches:

• StrategyFive manages DNS (recommended when possible): we coordinate the cutover and control timing.
• You manage DNS: we provide the exact record changes and you or your IT team applies them.

You remain the domain owner. We can help with DNS tasks, but we do not provide mailbox hosting for email.

We use GA4 as the source of truth for measurement and performance validation. Reporting is designed to give you clarity and a reliable audit trail.

The shared log

We maintain a shared log to record context that affects performance, for example:

• Site launches and major changes
• Tracking gaps and fixes
• Consent changes
• Incidents and outages
• Blackout periods and agreed deployment windows

Weekly and monthly reporting

• Weekly written update via the StrategyFive dashboard: what shipped, what is next, and time used.
• Monthly time report by category, including remaining hours and any rollover.
• Performance snapshots are provided as insight, not as a contractual success threshold.

Time report categories (typical)

• CRO analysis
• Development
• QA and release
• Performance and stability
• Tracking and measurement

Development is collaborative. You own priorities, and we deliver within the monthly time budget.

If work will exceed the time budget

• We will flag it early and propose options.
• We only proceed beyond the budget with written approval.
• Approved overage is billed at £75 per hour plus VAT.

Quality of our work

We guarantee the quality of the work we ship. If something we built breaks, we investigate and fix it.

Support hours

Support hours are 09:00 to 17:30 UK time, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays.

Support is provided by email. For P1 emergencies outside support hours, we provide best efforts support.

To contact support: support@strategyfive.io. For urgent P1 issues, you can also escalate via +44 20 4502 0343.

Severity levels

• P1 urgent: site down, checkout failure (not payment gateway), or a critical security issue being actively exploited.
• P2 high: a major function is materially impaired.
• P3 standard: routine defects or requests without material revenue impact.

For P1 incidents, the primary objective is restoration of service, followed by root cause analysis and prevention.

Delivery and restore times can be affected by third party outages, lack of access, missing licences, or client introduced defects.

Maintenance and blackout periods

• Planned maintenance is scheduled outside UK working hours where possible, and we notify you in advance.
• Peak retail periods may include agreed blackout periods, for example around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• We prepare and test changes in staging before going live.

Data protection and AI summary

Security is built into our platform and operating process. You act as the data controller and StrategyFive acts as a data processor for personal data processed through analytics tools.

We may use reputable AI tools to support internal research, drafting, and quality checks. We do not input your personal data or confidential information into public AI tools without your written consent. Human review governs outputs.

If you pause or exit

• We provide a summary of what shipped and what is in progress.
• Unused hours are refunded on termination.
• We agree access removal and any handover steps, including backups and documentation as appropriate.

Useful links and contacts

• FAQs: strategyfive.io/faqs
• Our model and tier pricing: strategyfive.io/pricing/cro-development
• Terms and policies: strategyfive.io/legal
• Support: support@strategyfive.io
• P1 escalation: +44 20 4502 0343