Bringing an existing design to life with custom development
X-CMO is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer service — essentially, they become the head of marketing for startups and scale-ups who need strategic expertise but aren’t ready to hire a full-time CMO. Simon, the founder, spent 15 years at top London agencies working with brands like Audi, Mastercard, and Pfizer before deciding to take that experience and apply it to smaller companies with big ambitions.
Simon got in touch because he needed someone to build a website properly. He’d already been working with a designer who’d created the visual direction, but he wanted a professional developer to implement it — someone who could handle the custom functionality the design required and deliver something that actually worked.
The brief
The design was already in place, so this was primarily a development project. But it wasn’t a straightforward template job. The site had a modern, flowing design with custom elements that needed careful implementation to work as intended.
Beyond the build, the X-CMO team needed to be able to manage the site themselves. Content updates, new team members, case studies — they couldn’t be coming back to a developer for every change.
The build
Simon’s based in Devon, so the whole project ran remotely. We had regular meetings throughout to review progress, work through any questions, and make sure everything was heading in the right direction. Remote projects work fine when communication is consistent — and Simon was great to work with on that front.
Custom development
This wasn’t an off-the-shelf WordPress theme with a few tweaks. The design called for custom features and interactions that needed building from scratch. That’s the kind of work I enjoy — taking a designer’s vision and figuring out how to make it function properly without compromising on the details.
The end result feels unique, which is exactly what a brand like X-CMO needs. When your whole proposition is about standing out from traditional agencies and consultancies, a generic website would undermine that message.
WordPress CMS
Built on WordPress with a setup that lets the team manage content independently. They can update copy, add new team members to the “X-perts” section, publish new content — all without touching code or waiting on me.
The result
Simon and the X-CMO team were really happy with how it turned out. The site looks modern and distinctive, the custom features work as intended, and they’ve got full control over the content going forward.
It was a pleasure working with them — clear communication, a solid design to work from, and a team that knew what they wanted. That combination makes for a smooth project.
