--- title: Build Phase: Shipping in Reviewable Slices description: Why work ships in slices you can review rather than one reveal at the end, and how performance budgets get enforced during the build, not after it. canonical: https://www.hire-web-dev.com/process/build/ section: Process updated: 2026-09-11 author: SumanKumar Phuyal site: hire-web-dev.com note: >- Generated from the page of record at the canonical URL above. The four case studies are placeholder work and their metrics were never measured; imagery is AI-generated concept art. See https://www.hire-web-dev.com/disclosure/. --- # PHASE TWO — BUILD Vertical slices, a deployed preview from day two, and two calls a week. You should never have to ask how it's going — you should be able to open it. ## Vertical slices I build one complete screen at a time — every state, real data, keyboard and screen reader behaviour included — before starting the next. It feels slower for the first two weeks and is considerably faster by week six, because the unpleasant discoveries surface while there's still room to respond. Building all the happy paths first and then retrofitting error states is how projects end up with a final third that's entirely unplanned work. ## Visibility There's a deployed preview from day two, updated on every push. Two calls a week: one to review what's built, one to unblock decisions. Between those I work asynchronously and will send a branch rather than a summary. Written status reports are a substitute for access, and access is better. When something takes longer than estimated you hear it the week it happens, not at the end of the phase. This is the single most reliable predictor of whether a project stays pleasant — bad news early is a scheduling problem, bad news late is a trust problem. ## Scope changes Expected, and handled the same way each time. A change gets written down with an estimate and a note on what it displaces, because capacity in a phase is fixed and something has to move. Most changes are worth making; the discipline is making the trade explicit rather than absorbing it silently and quietly slipping the date. ## Key facts - Duration: 4 — 10 weeks - Preview: From day two - Cadence: Two calls weekly - Slices: One screen at a time ## Rhythm - Preview: Day two onwards - Review call: Weekly - Unblock call: Weekly - Slice: One screen, all states ## Topics VERTICAL SLICES, PREVIEW DEPLOYS, ASYNC, SCOPE TRADES ## Image ![Floating code editor panels arranged around a glowing blue node diagram, a development build environment](https://www.hire-web-dev.com/assets/img/build-phase-code-editor-workspace.jpg)