Chief Product Officer · COLAB · Richmond, Virginia
Launch is step one. Getting there takes real work. What comes after is where momentum is built.
Getting a site launched is real work, and hitting that milestone matters. What I see go wrong is what happens next. The site goes live, the agency moves on, nothing gets built on top of it, and two years later the team is working around the thing they were proud of.
I have been at COLAB sixteen years, which is long enough to have watched that happen a lot, including on projects I worked on. I lead product and growth here. We are a Richmond agency, we have been building websites and web products for healthcare systems, credit unions, associations, and nonprofits since 2009, and our average client relationship runs about five years. I work with organizations before the proposal, through delivery, and well past the launch most agencies treat as the ending.
Four things take up most of it. They overlap more than an org chart would suggest, which is what happens at our size.
I hold the Growth area of accountability. That covers discovery conversations, positioning, proposals, and the RFP responses that decide which organizations we take on. I report the pipeline numbers to our leadership team every Tuesday.
The difference between a service business and a product practice is repeatability. A good chunk of my week is taking something we did well once and turning it into something a client can actually buy.
I have worked nearly every seat on a project team here, strategy through QA. That history is mostly useful for one thing: I can usually tell a client which part of their request is the expensive part in the first conversation instead of the fourth.
I build the tooling I want us using internally before I would put it in front of a client. Most of it is unglamorous and saves the team real hours.
Our delivery model is two steps and then a loop. The loop is the part that matters, and it is the reason the first two steps are worth doing carefully.
Learn the organization before the website. Who it serves, what it is accountable for, where the current site gets in the way of the people doing the work.
Agree on what success looks like and what it costs, in writing, while changing course is still cheap. We surface risks and trade-offs here even when it complicates the sale.
Work runs in two week iterations, typically ten to twelve of them before First Public Release. FPR is our word for launch, and the wording is deliberate. It is the first release to the public, not the last release of the project.
Why the vocabulary matters. A launch is a genuine milestone and worth marking. It is also the first time real people use what you built, which is when you start learning things no amount of planning would have told you. Calling it a first public release keeps everyone pointed at the second one.
I read and answer most of this myself. A short note about your situation beats a form, and you will get a real answer either way.
Healthcare systems, credit unions, associations, and nonprofits with a site that is holding the organization back. Bring me the problem rather than the spec. I would rather understand what is not working than respond to a feature list, and I will tell you early if we are the wrong fit.
I also run our RFP responses, so if you have one in flight, I am the person who reads it.
I speak on what actually happens to digital products after launch: client ownership and handoff, how small agencies put AI inside delivery instead of around it, digital experience in credit unions, member organizations, and nonprofits, and running an agency on an operating system rather than heroics.
Nonprofit digital work is the part I care most about. Conference programmers, podcast hosts, and reporters are welcome to reach me directly.
We work alongside technology and design partners on shared clients, and refer work out when someone else is the better answer. I am a regular at local meetups and creative get-togethers around Richmond.
Agency owners, production leads, and operations leadership working through the same problems are always welcome.
COLAB is a small digital agency in Richmond, Virginia. Since 2009 we have helped mission-driven, people-centered organizations build the clarity and confidence to grow online. Our work spans product strategy, UX and UI design, content and CMS, engineering, and AI services.
Three things describe how we work. Clients get solutions they can understand, manage, and change without staying dependent on us. Our effort goes where it is strategically valuable rather than where it is easiest to bill. We raise risks and trade-offs early, including the ones that make delivery harder.
The shorthand I use: the rigor of a larger agency and the care of a smaller one. It shows up in documented practice, a team that has been together a long time, and client relationships measured in years.
Tell me what you are trying to fix and who it affects. That is enough to start.
I am based in Richmond, Virginia, and work with organizations across the country. If you would rather start with a conversation than a brief, say so in the first line and I will set one up.