Phase 1 – Intake 
This is the research and strategy phase. Working closely with the client contact team, we analyze their objectives for the project and then do something pretty unusual: We interview real live customers. The question we're looking to get answered is simple, but profound:
What do the client's customers want?
And while this might seem both obvious and easy-to-answer, it is amazing how many clients spend huge sums of money without ever truly answering it. When (and only when) we know the answer to that question, we proceed to the next question:
How do we connect the client's objectives with what their customers want?
This is the strategy for enabling that "client-to-customer" communication — everything from creative approach to the selection of "right" delivery technologies. Sometimes, the best approach is fairly straightforward. But in some cases, the objectives of the client aren't in sync with what their customers want (or even conflict with them). Situations like these require rigorous thinking and tough choices.
Once a strategy is in place, the plan is articulated and broken down into defined phases and deliverables, all of which go into a master project timeline.
Once the Intake phase is complete, we move on to the Compression phase.