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DESIGN
what is the design foundation sprint?
Scale the product. Not the design debt.
Raft Design helps recently funded teams turn scattered brand, UX, and product decisions into a foundation the whole company can build from in four weeks.
The Design Foundation Sprint · For Funded Startups
Both versions of this page render from the same content source. → /design-foundation/
──[ 01 ]── OFFER ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- name
- Design Foundation Sprint
- for
- For Funded Startups
- timeline
- 4 weeks
- pricing
- Core $28,000 · Full System $34,000 · Land & Expand $10,000/mo
- billing
- 50% to start · 50% at delivery
- book
- https://calendly.com/raftdesignstudio/30min
- human page
- https://raftdesign.studio/design-foundation/
──[ 02 ]── PROBLEMS ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cat problems.md
// Design maturity gap
# The design gap usually shows up before the design hire does.
At Series A, the product and team start growing faster than the decisions holding them together. You may already be seeing the signs.
✕ The product still needs someone to explain it. It works in a founder-led demo, but new users need help understanding the value or completing important workflows.
✕ Every release adds another version of the same pattern. With AI you ship features quickly, but the interface becomes less consistent and harder to extend.
✕ Design decisions are scattered across the team. Founders, PMs, and engineers make customer-experience decisions one ticket at a time.
✕ The company tells a different story in every place. The website, sales deck, demo, and product no longer feel like one company.
✕ You need senior judgment before you need a design department. The gap is already affecting the roadmap, but a full design team is still premature.
# Raft turns scattered decisions into a foundation the whole team can build from.
✓ Clear brand One story across product, sales, and marketing.
✓ Stronger core UX Important workflows that make sense without a guided demo.
✓ Reusable product system Shared patterns the team can extend without starting over.
──[ 03 ]── SCOPE ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cat scope.md
// The scope
# Brand first. Then the product that expresses it.
Why four weeks, not three: most sprints pick one lane. This does both, in the order that actually works.
Direction-setting. Positioning, audience, and the design foundation everything else builds on.
Identity system: typography, color architecture, voice, and an investor-ready deck template.
5–10 high-fidelity screens, interactive prototype, edge cases mapped, built on the Week 2 system.
Tokenized component library, fully documented handoff, recorded engineering walkthrough. Your team builds on it without you in the room.
──[ 04 ]── TRACK RECORD ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cat track-record.md
// Track record
# Happy clients. Real outcomes.
An IPO on Nasdaq. Acquisitions by HPE and Tecsys. Companies still running and growing years later. What people who hired our founder have to say.
LegalOn
Current Project · $200M+ funded
“Lance seamlessly connected LegalOn’s U.S.-born brand with the cultural context of Japan. The brand architecture and framework he created gave us a clear way to express our core idea of ‘ON’ while keeping the brand cohesive as our product portfolio expanded.”
— Rin Yano, Chief Design Officer, LegalOn
Cloud Cruiser
Acquired by HPE, 2017
“LinkedIn only lets me rate Lance high on three attributes, but he actually delivers high on all: great results, personable, expert, good value, on time, high integrity and creative. Finding all of these in one person is very rare.”
— Karla Haley, Director of Demand Generation, Cloud Cruiser
Health Catalyst
IPO'd on Nasdaq, 2019 · ~$292M revenue
“Lance, and his team, did a fantastic job helping our company launch its new brand identity. He was directly involved in all aspects of the project, including the brand redesign strategy as well as the creative implementation on our fully redesigned website and other collateral.”
— Dan Burton, CEO at the time
OrderDynamics
Acquired by Tecsys, 2018
“I first worked with Lance's team at OrderDynamics on a website redesign. I thought their work was great and brought them in to redo our website at Leadspace. We went through an RFP process and reviewed several other vendors, but Lance's team stood out in terms of their creative talent and their unique experience in designing B2B websites focused on generating leads.”
— Kylee Hall, Director of Product Marketing, OrderDynamics and Leadspace
Leadspace
Still operating, still shipping
“Lance and his team did an amazing job redesigning Leadspace.com. Really cutting edge work that helps us stand out in the competitive predictive analytics market. They were also great to work with, patient with our requests but helped guide us with a clear and thoughtful approach to design.”
— Damon Waldron, Director of Demand Generation, Leadspace
──[ 05 ]── PRICING ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cat pricing.md
// Pricing
# The most direct way to hire senior design leadership.
No hourly billing. No scope creep. No junior handoff. Just a fixed price for senior judgment, delivered in four weeks.
Core
Ideal for teams with some existing design foundation. You need a brand system and a working product to show investors and early customers, without the full weight of a mature product surface yet.
price: $28,000
50% to start · 50% at delivery
What's included
+ Positioning, audience, experience principles
+ Core brand identity system (typography, color, voice)
+ Key sales and marketing templates
+ Up to 5 core product screens, high-fidelity
+ Interactive prototype
+ Core states and edge cases mapped
+ Component library and design tokens
+ Documentation and engineering handoff
+ AI-ready design system (DESIGN.md)
+ Everything built and delivered in Figma
Full System
Ideal for teams starting closer to zero. You need the full brand system and a broader product surface mapped and built, ready to hand to engineering across your whole app, not just a few key screens.
price: $34,000
50% to start · 50% at delivery
What's included
+ Everything in Core, plus:
+ Expanded brand system: iconography/illustration style, extended template set (deck, social, email)
+ Full messaging framework: positioning statement, brand pillars, audience-specific messaging
+ 8–10 product screens, high-fidelity
+ Deeper edge-case and state mapping across the full product surface
+ Expanded component library covering additional product surfaces
+ Everything built and delivered in Figma
Land & Expand
After the sprint
Ongoing fractional design leadership, roughly 15 hours a week, for teams that want to keep the brand and product functions running well without a full-time hire. Ongoing, no fixed end date.
price: $10,000/mo
Currently taking a limited number of sprint engagements in exchange for case-study rights. If you're an early yes, the terms reflect that.
──[ 06 ]── SELECTED WORK ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ls -l /work --selected
// Selected work
# Startup and enterprise work, built to move.
──[ 07 ]── AI-READY SYSTEM ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cat ai-ready-design-system.md
// AI-ready design system
# Your design system shouldn't stop at Figma.
Every sprint includes an AI-ready design system, not just Figma files. Your brand rules, tokens, components, and DESIGN.md stay usable by your team and your AI tools long after the sprint ends.
──[ 08 ]── FAQ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- How is this different from hiring a freelancer?
- You're working directly with someone who's led design at Adobe and Walmart scale, not delegating to a junior contractor. The output is also a full system, brand and product together, not a one-off deliverable.
- What if we need more than 10 product screens?
- The Full System Sprint covers most funded startups' core surfaces. Larger scopes are quoted directly after the fit assessment call.
- Do you work with teams outside the US?
- Raft works in English and Japanese.
- What happens after the sprint ends?
- Most teams either take what's delivered and run with it in-house, or move into the Land & Expand fractional retainer to keep shipping with continued design leadership.
- How soon can we start?
- Sprints typically start within four weeks of booking a fit assessment call, depending on current availability. Book a call to find the next open slot.
- Will our product and roadmap details stay confidential?
- Yes. Happy to sign an NDA before any detailed discussion, just ask.
- Why can't I just use AI tools myself?
- AI tools are powerful, but they don't know which choices are right for your specific business. The value isn't the AI, it's 25+ years of judgment directing it: knowing what to build, when it's right, and how to get there fast. Without that direction, AI accelerates guesswork just as easily as it accelerates good decisions.
- How is this different from AI-Ready Design Systems?
- The Sprint is a fixed, one-time engagement that builds your brand and product foundation from the ground up. AI-Ready Design Systems is for teams that already have a system in place and want it restructured so their team and their AI tools can work from it directly. Most funded startups start with the Sprint.
──[ 09 ]── NEXT STEP ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
raft --connect
// Next step
# Let's unblock your roadmap.
I'm a founder. Best fit: funded startups with an engineering team already shipping and a brand or product that hasn't caught up yet. Share a brief below and you'll get a scoping note and timeline back within 48 hours, or book the 30-minute call directly if you'd rather talk it through first.
I'm a VC. Best fit: portfolio companies with an engineering team already shipping and a brand or product that hasn't caught up yet. Tell us who, and we'll reach out directly.
- hello@raftdesign.studio
- book
- https://calendly.com/raftdesignstudio/30min
- form
- /design-foundation/#next-step
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