Client OS · Internal Notes
Verrill Cabinetmakers
Internal only — not shared with the client
TEMPLATE CLIENT — not a real project. This file is the reference build of Client OS: every artifact populated with the current design, so a new client can be started by copying this file and swapping the words. Fictional studio, fictional people, example.com links throughout.
01
Snapshot
Feeds: Positioning & scope- Who are they, the short version of the story?
- What's the business, in their own words?
- Goal of this project: solving what, and why now?
- How much time and energy will they put into this?
- Cabinetmaking studio in Hudson, New York. Founded 2011. One shop, six on the bench, no outsourcing. Ten commissions a year, kitchens from $95,000, nine-month lead time.
- Every project to date has come from architect and designer referrals. Zero from the website.
- GOAL: stop competing on the referral rota. They want homeowners arriving already sold on the studio, so the first call is about the room rather than about why hand-built costs what it costs.
02
The offer
Feeds: Work page & sitemap- What exactly is being commissioned, start to finish?
- How does the enquiry actually work today?
- Who says no, and at what point?
- What is genuinely unrepeatable here?
- POSITIONING RESOLVED: scarcity is the wedge, not craft. Every competitor says handmade. Only this studio takes ten commissions a year and publishes the number, which reframes the lead time from a problem into proof.
- The enquiry is a consultation, not a quote. Nothing is priced before a visit, and that has to be stated plainly or the form gets treated as a price request.
- Where deals die: the nine-month lead time, delivered as a surprise on the first call. Putting it on the site qualifies people before anyone's time is spent.
- Unrepeatable: the shop does its own finishing. Most competitors send out for it, and finishing is where the visible quality actually lives.
03
Audience
Feeds: Messaging & structure- Typical client: who are they, what are they buying?
- What makes someone hesitate?
- How do they find the studio today?
- Two audiences with opposite needs: the homeowner, who buys reassurance and wants to see finished rooms, and the architect, who buys reliability and wants materials, tolerances and lead times. The homeowner is the priority for this build.
- Main hesitation is not price, it's fear of being managed badly for nine months. The process page has to answer that, not the work page.
- Today: word of mouth, one Instagram account posted to irregularly, and a site that reads like a contractor's.
04
Look & feel
Feeds: Style direction- Sites and brands they love, and what specifically about them.
- Existing assets to work with or around.
- Anything that would be wrong for them?
- Pulled toward gallery and auction-house layouts. Wants the site to feel like a catalogue rather than a portfolio.
- Existing wordmark is well drawn and stays. Colours were never fixed, so the palette is open.
- Explicitly not wanted: reclaimed-barn-wood textures, sawdust photography, script fonts, anything that reads as rustic. They are a precision shop, not a barn.