Client engagement
Discovery and architecture for a secure digital publication reader
A completed discovery, scoping, and architecture deliverable for a secure HTML5/PWA manga and magazine reader: user journeys, NFT and fiat entitlements, encrypted delivery with watermarking, publisher CMS and analytics, and a delivery plan, plus deployment troubleshooting on the client's existing product after its move from AWS to GCP.
Client deliverable
The deliverable belongs to the client: the documents, the architecture, and the planning stay theirs. What we can walk you through is the method and the shape of the output.
- Recorded outcome
- Complete discovery and architecture deliverable: reader and publisher journeys, system architecture, entitlement model, encrypted delivery and watermarking, non-functional requirements, QA plan, acceptance criteria, and risk register
- Status
- Delivered
- Practice
- Build
- Sources
- 1 figure
Consolidated technical approach document, 8 pages, September 2025
Client deliverable
Digital publishing
document on record
The problem.
A digital-publishing startup had a broad statement of work for a secure reader with paid entitlements and offline reading, and needed an executable architecture, an estimate, and a discovery plan before committing to a build. Separately, the client's existing demo product was down after a move from AWS to GCP.
What the deliverable covers.
- Reader and publisher user journeys, with responsive reader modes
- HTML5/PWA and offline approach
- Wallet and email authentication
- An entitlement model covering ERC-1155 and ERC-721 token purchases on Base or Polygon, and fiat purchases through Stripe
- Secure content pipeline: S3 storage with KMS encryption, CloudFront delivery through signed URLs, and watermarking
- Publisher CMS scope, analytics, and a system architecture specifying Next.js 14, NestJS, PostgreSQL with Prisma, and Redis with BullMQ
- Non-functional requirements, team composition as a managed pod, QA and security strategy, acceptance criteria, and a risk register
- Discovery outputs and delivery planning
- Hands-on deployment troubleshooting on the client's existing demo environment after its move from AWS to GCP: an SSL failure, then a deployment sitting in the wrong GCP project
- Codebase review and content-moderation requirements on the client's existing product
Timeline.
First call: a broad statement of work for the reader that needed an executable architecture
Discovery and a managed-pod delivery model proposed
Consolidated technical approach and delivery plan reviewed with the client, with DRM and watermarking questions to follow
Client's existing demo site down after its move from AWS to GCP, with an SSL failure; troubleshooting session
Demo deployment traced to the wrong GCP project and the fix assigned; codebase review and content-moderation requirements gathered
Closing call with the client
What this case claims, and what it does not.
On the record
- A completed discovery, scoping, and architecture deliverable, with the scope listed
- This is the Diagnose stage of the operating model, as its own deliverable
- Hands-on deployment troubleshooting on the client's existing product
Withheld, and why
Figures that exist internally and are not on this page, with the reason.
- That the reader was built or launched
- This engagement stopped at discovery and architecture. Publishing an outcome for a platform we did not build would be a claim about someone else's work.
- The budget band and timeline
- Commercial terms stay between us and the client.
Elsewhere on the site
Read next
- ReferenceThe evidence registerEvery record behind this page, what kind of evidence each is, and what is withheld.
- PracticeThe Build practiceWhat Build covers, what it costs, and the other work behind it.
- The workThe five practicesSoftware, data, automation, growth and talent: what each one covers and what it costs.
Where to next
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