A 5-week design sprint that ships a real prototype.
Fixed-price product design sprint: contextual user research, journey mapping, interactive prototype, validated with your real users — in 5 weeks. Senior US designers who actually ship. 25 years of production software at Caxy.
Expert team
Designers who work next to engineers.
Caxy's designers sit on the same team as the engineers who'll build the product. No design-vs-engineering handoff cliff. No 'we can't build that' surprises after the design is done. 25 years of building production software. AWS Advanced Consulting Partner. Senior US team, founder-led from Chicago.
The Design Sprint Problem
You need design that ships, not another framework deck.
Most UX engagements end with a 60-page deck. Personas, journey maps, 'opportunities,' frameworks. Beautiful and unactionable. The recommendations are too vague to translate into engineering work. Three months of design becomes three more months of internal debate, then a watered-down version of the original idea finally ships. We do design differently. A 5-week sprint with concrete deliverables: contextual inquiry with 8-12 of your real users in their actual environment, a real journey map (not a stock-photo one), information architecture that respects how work actually happens, and an interactive prototype that's tested with real users in week 4. Engineering-ready. Fixed price. Because our designers and engineers work on the same team, what gets designed is what gets built — and if you want us to build it after the sprint, we can.
“They’re the smartest group of people I’ve worked with; they can figure anything out. Caxy has respect for design. Other web firms often push back against designers if the designs don’t fit how they do things. By contrast, the Caxy team bends over backward to respect the original design concepts."
“They often go above and beyond to fully dig into a problem, identify solutions, and achieve our end goals. {...} We now can scale up our site and support future growth, thanks to Caxy Interactive’s efforts.”
“We feel like we’ve got a site that’s worth more than we paid for. The change that we were proposing from a redesign standpoint wasn’t going to be easy. So, he offered multiple times to come out and meet with many of those senior executives that have been with the company for 20 years.”
How a design sprint works
5 weeks. Fixed price. Validated prototype.
Week 1: Contextual inquiry. We watch 8-12 of your real users do their real work in their actual environment. Not focus groups. Not surveys. Direct observation.
Week 2: Synthesis + journey mapping. We map the workflow as it actually exists — including the workarounds your users have invented to compensate for current software gaps.
Week 3: Information architecture + low-fidelity prototype. We design how the new product should be structured. Wireframes. Component inventory.
Week 4: Interactive prototype + user testing. High-fidelity Figma prototype, tested with 5-8 of your users. Iterate based on what we learn.
Week 5: Engineering-ready handoff. Final design system, all flows, component spec, and a build estimate from our engineering team if you want to proceed.
Process Wins
A validated design your engineering team can build without reinterpreting. Real user feedback, not focus-group theater. A prototype your CEO can demo to investors. And if you want to build it, the same senior US team that designed it can ship it — no handoff cliff, no design-vs-engineering wars.
25
Years of continuous operation. Same leadership since 1999.
100+
Production platforms shipped across every major industry.
$1B+
In client exit value. Our code powered the deal.
$200/hr
Blended rate. Senior US engineers, PM, QA included.
Ready to build something?
Start a conversation.
Common questions
Questions we hear every week
01.
How much does custom software cost?
Most projects range from $150K to $500K depending on scope. Technology assessments start at $15K. Our blended rate is $200/hour including senior engineers, PM, and QA.
02.
How long does development take?
An MVP typically takes 6-10 weeks. Full enterprise platforms take 3-12 months. We build in two-week sprints with live demos every cycle so you see progress immediately.
03.
What happens if requirements change?
They always do. Our sprint model is designed for it. You see working software every two weeks and can adjust priorities in real time. No change orders for reasonable scope evolution.
04.
Do you work with our existing systems?
Yes. We frequently integrate with Salesforce, NetSuite, SAP, and custom databases. We also take over existing projects that stalled -- internal builds, offshore handoffs, failed vendor engagements.
05.
What technologies do you use?
Node.js, React, Scala, Python, AWS. Open source stack, no vendor lock-in. You own everything we build. AWS Advanced Partner.