— where this sits
The first rung of the ladder.
Three engagement bands. The audit is the on-ramp — designed so a serious buyer can put a real read on the table before committing to engagement-tier scope.
Audit— you are here
A defensible read of one product surface — async, scoped, handed off as a method. The on-ramp to engagement-tier work.
Engagement
Full OOUX rebuild + measurement plan, stakeholder workshops, wireframes, handoff, 30-day post-launch advisory.
Advisory
Senior design partner on retainer — 2 sessions/month, async review, monthly KPI-tree updates.
— how it works
Three steps. One strategic read.
Async by design — no live workshops, no daily standups. The engagement is structured so the team can keep shipping while the audit runs in parallel.
- 01
Brief and access
A short brief — the surface, the audience, the number you're trying to move. Read access to the product, the analytics, and any prior research. No live workshops; this is async work.
Day 1 — async - 02
OOUX diagnostic + KPI-tree gap analysis
I run an OOUX read on the surface — objects, relationships, attributes, CTAs — and map the existing telemetry against a KPI tree built from the brief. The output is a prioritized set of strategic UX moves, not a heuristic checklist.
Days 2 — 8 - 03
Written brief + 60-minute readout
A stakeholder-ready audit document and a live 60-minute walkthrough. Findings are sized to what the org can actually act on next quarter, not a wishlist.
Days 9 — 14
— deliverables
What lands on your desk.
The audit document is the artefact. The method handoff is the reason to run it now instead of next year.
- OOUX diagnostic — objects, relationships, attributes, CTAs
- KPI tree mapped to existing telemetry, with measurement gaps named
- Prioritized strategic UX moves, sized by effort and expected lift
- Stakeholder-ready audit document (PDF, ~15 — 25 pages)
- 60-minute live readout with the team
- Method handoff — the templates the audit was built against
— fit
An honest read on whether this is the right tier.
— best for
Teams that suspect the problem is structural.
The surface looks fine in usability tests but the metric won't move. Most often this is an object-model problem the team has been treating as a UI problem.
Buyers who want a senior outside read before committing to a rebuild.
Engagement-tier work starts at $18,000. The audit exists so a buyer can put a serious read on the table before that conversation, without committing to an 8-week scope.
Regulated or measurable spaces.
The audit pays back fastest where loose IA is paid for by the regulator, the operator, and the user — fintech, healthcare, govtech, enterprise analytics.
— not for
Visual-design refreshes or brand work — the audit is about the object model and the measurement plan, not the surface treatment.
Free or low-cost reads — the free pre-audit tool exists for that. The paid tier filters out 'free audit' requests.
Teams that want a heuristic checklist — Nielsen's heuristics are public; the audit is strategic UX work, not a usability sweep.
— before you book
There's a free pre-audit tool if you'd rather start there.
A scorecard that runs on a single URL — heuristic flags, IA observations, and the questions a senior consultant would ask before quoting a real engagement. Email-gated, one report per address, no human in the loop.
— booking · 2025 — 2026
If the surface won't move the metric, that's the audit.
A 30-minute fit call costs nothing and is the fastest way to find out whether the audit is the honest tier. If it isn't, I'll say so on the call.