Spec build
Two websites built before anyone asked for them
A pharmaceutical distributor and a retail chain, each researched and built as a pitch — not as a paid engagement.
Problem
Two businesses I could see were being held back by their web presence, neither of which had briefed me. The question a spec build answers is not 'can you follow a brief' — it is 'can you work out what a business needs when nobody tells you.'
Context and constraints
Unsolicited. No brief, no budget, no access to the businesses' own data or analytics. Everything about the audience, the offer, and the competitive position had to be researched from the outside before a single page was designed.
What I built
For the distributor: a Next.js App Router site with SEO wiring done properly — robots, sitemap, and site configuration — preceded by a written competitive analysis and a landing-page brief that argued for the structure before it was built. For the retail chain: a Next.js site covering customers, employees, products, and store branches, with a brand folder behind it.
Before / after
Before: two businesses whose sites did not explain what they sold or why anyone should choose them. After: two complete, deployable sites plus the research documents that justify every structural decision in them.
Result
Both are built and substantive. Neither was commissioned, and I am not claiming either as a client result — the label on this case study says so. What they demonstrate is the part that comes before the code: researching a business you were not briefed on, and being able to defend the structure you chose.
What I would improve next
Deploy both and run Lighthouse against them. A spec build that lives only on my machine proves design judgment but not delivery, and delivery is half of what a buyer is checking.
Tools used
- Next.js App Router
- Competitive analysis
- SEO configuration
- Brand and content structure
Artifacts
Spec work is only a weakness when it is dressed up as something else.
Presented honestly, it answers a question a commissioned project cannot: what do I do when there is no brief? The competitive analysis is the part I would ask a reader to look at — not the site, but the document that explains why the site is shaped the way it is.
The businesses are described here generically because they did not ask for this work and have not agreed to be named.