Systems strategy & client workflows for web designers
I build client workflows so your Tuesday isn't three Slack pings, a missed handoff, and design work you keep meaning to get back to.
A successful design business shouldn’t require you to stop being a designer.
And running it shouldn’t require you to become a rigid, color-coded version of yourself.
I help web and brand designers build client workflows that fit the people using them—so you can stay deliberately small, support your clients and team, and keep doing the creative work you love.
Notebook person? Skeptical of systems? We can start there.
“She [Jacki] met me where I was—scattered, trying to play catch up, unsure of how to change it—and helped me envision what a better process could look like. I walked away with a newfound sense of confidence in what my specific goals were for various kinds of client interaction.”
You brought in help. Why are you carrying more?
You’re still designing. But now you’re also answering the questions, checking the work, keeping projects moving, and making sure there’s enough coming in to pay everyone.
Your laptop comes on vacation. Starting the workday feels less like an opportunity to create and more like opening one enormous to-do list.
You don’t necessarily want more people or more projects. You want the business you have to stop requiring so much of you.
You know how you put your car keys on that book you need to give your friend tonight…
That’s a system.
Or how you keep your floss next to your toothbrush so you remember to use it…
Yep a system.
Or the way you take a lead through the design process during a Discovery Call without missing a beat.
You guessed it… system.
You just don’t name them that because they're easy. They work (for you). You don’t have to think about them.
And… that’s the whole point of a system.
Problem is, you now have a team. And now the systems that worked when you were solo don’t.
When your project wrap-up process lives in your head and a stack of post-its, it’s hard to delegate that.
So how do you take all the ways that work for just you and make them work for people who don’t think like you?
You get real damn curious. And then you hire me.
Systems are all about discovering you - how you work, how you think, what motivates you, what makes things easier for you, what circumstances in life are putting up roadblocks.
I use strategic questions and Human Design (or really any personality typology that resonates with you) to tease out all the ways we can make a client experience system work for you and your team.
People tell me my work is almost like business therapy
I’m not a therapist. But there’s room here to be honest about how your business feels—not just whether the tasks are getting done.
Maybe you love designing but dread opening your project-management tool.
Maybe you brought in help and somehow ended up with more responsibility.
Maybe the business looks successful, but you don’t like what it takes from you to keep it running.
We can talk about that.
We can also question the things you’ve accepted as “just part of running a business.”
Do client meetings need to be scattered throughout your week?
Does every question need your answer?
Do you want to hand off that project—or would you rather keep the design work and stop coordinating every step around it?
Those conversations help us decide what to protect, what to share, and what needs to change.
Maybe that means client meetings on Thursdays and protected design days.
Maybe it means a team member can handle an out-of-scope request without bringing every decision back to you.
Maybe it means choosing which projects you design while trusting someone else to carry the others.
We’re not just making a to-do list easier to manage.
We’re making intentional decisions about what belongs on yours.
We turn curiosity into a way of working.
Understanding you is the starting point. We also need to understand what your business is asking of you.
Where do projects get stuck? Which questions keep coming back? What are you handling because it genuinely needs you—and what are you handling because no one has established another way?
Depending on the work we’re doing together, we may examine recent projects, scope gaps, team hours, profitability, and the emotional labor involved in delivery.
Then we decide what needs to change.
Keep what supports you.
Your notebook doesn’t have to go. Neither does a favorite tool that’s doing its job. We’re not replacing things just to make your business look more organized.
Make responsibilities easier to share.
We clarify what needs to happen, who owns it, and when your involvement matters… so delegation means more than giving someone a task and waiting for the questions.
Help clients participate.
We look at what clients need to understand, decide, and do, then build communication and guidance around those moments.
Be honest about capacity and boundaries.
A workflow can support a boundary. It can’t make the decision to enforce it for you. If something also needs to change in your scope, expectations, or delivery model, we’ll talk about that.
The goal isn’t a more impressive setup. It’s a way of working that offers enough benefit to be worth learning and maintaining.
Staying small doesn’t mean doing everything yourself.
It means being intentional about the number of people and projects you manage… and choosing the role you want to keep.
Maybe you want to design for your favorite clients while other designers handle different projects.
Maybe you want to retain creative approval without coordinating every step leading up to it.
Maybe you want a few trusted collaborators, not a growing list of people who need something from you.
You can share responsibility without planning to remove yourself from designing.
We’re working toward a profitable, manageable business with room for your creativity—and a life beyond the next deadline.
Small on purpose.
Stop Guessing Which CRM Actually Fits Your Micro-Agency
You need a cheat sheet when you find yourself asking Threads, "any recommendations for a CRM that works with my neurodivergent brain and supports my values?"
Ways to work together
Let’s make the right part of your business easier to run.
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once.
We’ll choose a starting point based on what’s getting in the way, what you want to keep doing, and what would make a meaningful difference.
651.7 — Onboarding, Built in a Day
They said yes. Now what?
Now you’re finding the right email, sending the next document, checking what’s missing, and making sure nothing gets skipped.
Seamless Start focuses on the onboarding workflow for one offer, so getting a client started doesn’t depend on you assembling the process again each time.
We’ll create a clearer way to:
Guide clients through what they need to do before the project begins.
Keep track of the steps, information, and handoffs involved.
Share the process with someone supporting you.
Reduce the repeated remembering and chasing that lands back on your list.
658.8 — Lead-to-Referral Workflow
From "just found you" to "you have to hire them!"... in one workflow.
You open up your email at 10pm and your stomach drops. "We didn't hear back about photo choices" is staring at you. You thought the email had been sent. Fuck.
Lead to Launched brings the client journey and the work behind it into a more deliberate workflow, from inquiry through offboarding.
Together, we’ll connect:
What your client needs to know and do.
What your team needs to deliver.
Who owns each step and handoff.
Where your input, decisions, or approval are needed.
So you can remain involved in the work you choose without personally coordinating every moving part.
Not sure where to start?
Tell me what’s feeling harder than it should. We’ll talk about whether one of these offers is the right fit—and what it can realistically help with.
“When my team needed a total overhaul of our sales funnel and lead generation systems, she [Jacki] was my first and only call. Jacki took everything we said and created a mapped-out visual aid that encompassed all of our wishes. She then found us the digital tools and platforms that could make that vision a reality—within our budget.”
— Sarah K. Heeter
How Bridget’s “fine” onboarding process became effortless
Bridget had been running her referral-based business for 15+ years, but her client onboarding was still clunky, manual, and easy to forget. Together, we clarified her steps, built a seamless client flow, and reworked her tools to match how she works best.
“Now I have a clear, streamlined system. Clients get a thoughtful experience, and I don’t forget anything. It’s made my entire business feel easier.” - Bridget Baker, Founder of Bridget Baker Branding
More stories from the stacks →
Don’t worry, I don’t build it and disappear.
The right system for you needs to be something you can actually use.
Sometimes that means making the process more familiar. Sometimes it means getting through the learning-curve hump.
A workflow can make sense in a planning session and still need adjustments once it meets a busy week, a real client, or a team member with questions.
My implementation work includes support through that transition.
We’ll look at what needs practice, what needs clearer guidance, and what genuinely needs to change.
You won’t be handed a setup and left to wonder whether you’re doing it wrong.
Hi I'm Jacki (she/her). Sticker collector, spreadsheet lover, Tarot reader, and Pisces Rising with a Capricorn Sun.
I want your business to leave room for you.
Your creativity. Your ways of thinking. The work you enjoy.
And the life you want when the laptop closes.
I’m a systems and operations strategist for web and brand designers who want to stay deliberately small and remain involved in their creative work.
I get curious about the person and practical about the business.
That means looking at responsibilities, project delivery, and the numbers—but also what motivates you, what feels difficult, and what the work asks of you and your team.
We’ll respect the ways you work while questioning the things that are making work harder.
I’m not here to turn you into someone else.
I’m here to help you make intentional decisions about how your business runs.
With a bachelor's in animal ecology and a master's in religious and women's studies, I was taught how to see systems everywhere: in nature, in culture, and in the operations that run our day-to-day lives.
That curiosity about how things work is what drives almost everything I do. And it also means I can't ignore the systems that shouldn't work the way they do.
I believe in human rights, full stop. That means Black Lives Matter, trans rights are human rights, bodily autonomy is non-negotiable, and love is love. It means actively dismantling the systems that uphold white supremacy, patriarchy, toxic capitalism, and any other bullshit that tells people they are less than.
“That was my sticking point, and I needed somebody who really understood onboarding, but also ethics.”
— Catrina Mitchum
050.1 — Periodicals
Not ready to change things yet? Start by getting curious.
You don’t need to rebuild your business this week.
Start with a closer look at one process, one repeated frustration, or one thing that keeps landing back on your list.
sys·tem-ish
A weekly-ish email (Wednesdays, mostly) that's sorta about systems. Sorta systems. The repeatable stuff that happens without a fight.
Honest stories, free tools I actually use, and the occasional smutty romantasy recommendation. No apologies on that last one.
"I think your newsletter is really fucking awesome... you show the whole part of running a business." — Amanda Gold
You don’t need a bigger business to justify a better way of running it.
If you want to keep designing without carrying every moving part, let’s look at what needs to change.
We’ll start with your business, your ways of working, and what you want more room for—not a platform you’re supposed to fit into.
Obviously you want to work with me
Fill out the form or book a Discovery Call.