· HOW WE WORK · · ADVISE + BUILD
From scoping call to shipped capability.
Every brand's agentic commerce stack looks different. We work yours — from the audit of where you stand against the agent shift, to the first shippable proof inside the advisory phase, to the capability that turns it into revenue. NCTR is the consumer-scale version we built for ourselves.
Talk to the studioA studio engagement, not an agency sprint.
A Butterfly engagement starts with the growth problem you brought, then works the five-stage lifecycle — Discovery, Search, Commerce, and Payments, with Loyalty as the foundation layer underneath — to the specific capability that ships at the end. Scoped tight. Working software at the end of every phase. The IP you ship is yours.
Six phases. The first three are Advise — studio-led growth and advisory that names what the agent era is changing for your category, audits what to build first, and ships an early proof inside the advisory work itself. The next three are Build — the rest of the capability and the agent infrastructure that compounds on it.
The process
Six phases. Advise into Build.
Most engagements start at Phase 1 and run through Phase 6. Some start at Phase 4 when the strategy is already clear and the build is what’s needed. We scope to where you are.
Discovery
Stakeholder conversations and a read on your revenue motion. We learn how your customers find you today, where the agent shift is hitting your category, and what's already working that we should not touch.
Audit & Mapping
Agent-readability audit — your catalog, content, offers, identity, and loyalty surface. Mapped against where the agent does the looking (Bounty Hunter, Perplexity Shopping, ChatGPT Operator, the Shopify and Google UCP work). The output is a frank read on what gets surfaced today and what gets skipped.
Roadmap
Lifecycle architecture for your stack. What changes across the lifecycle — and how loyalty runs underneath as the layer agents read first. Sequenced by what produces revenue soonest, not what's easiest to build. We pick one piece of the roadmap to ship inside the Advise engagement — your first agent-readable surface in market before the Build phase opens.
Build
Shipped working software. Agent-discoverable catalog and content. Agent-to-brand connectivity. Agentic-commerce-ready storefront. Consumer-rewards integration when loyalty is in scope. The same team that built NCTR's consumer stack ships yours.
Enablement
Your team operates what we built. Playbooks for the marketing, product, and ops teams that own each lifecycle stage. The internal language to talk about the agent shift across the org, so the work survives the next reorg.
Ongoing partnership
A studio relationship, not a vendor contract. We track the agent landscape — new standards, new platforms, new buying surfaces — and bring the next move to you before the market does. Loyalty is the foundation layer; we keep it tuned as the layer underneath everything.
Where this fits
Two service lines, one engagement arc.
The six phases map across our two front-door service lines. Most brand engagements run the full arc; some start mid-arc when the strategy work is already done.
Advise (Phases 1-3)
Studio-led growth and advisory. We name what the agent era is changing for your category, audit where you stand, and architect the lifecycle work that produces revenue.
Build (Phases 4-6)
Shipped working software, agent infrastructure, and the long-tail partnership that keeps the capability current as the agent landscape moves.
The proof
We ran the process on ourselves.
NCTR Alliance is the consumer-scale outcome of this process applied to our own studio thesis — that agentic commerce needs a participation economy underneath it. Three live consumer apps. 5,000+ brand partners. Built on Base. Positioned as the consumer proof point of x402. Wingman reads NCTR state to decide what surfaces in Bounty Hunter — that is loyalty as the foundation layer of agentic commerce, in production.
Open them yourself: The Mall, Bounty Hunter, Crescendo.
The same team that built NCTR ships for your brand.
FAQ
How a studio engagement works
How long does a Butterfly engagement run?
Most engagements run 8-16 weeks for Advise (Phases 1-3) and an additional 12-24 weeks for Build (Phases 4-6), depending on scope. The Ongoing partnership phase is a separate relationship — not a fixed term.
Do you only work brands across the full six phases?
No. Some engagements start at Phase 4 when the strategy is already clear and the build is what's needed. Others are scoped to a single lifecycle stage — making a catalog agent-discoverable, rebuilding search for the agent era, getting payment flows agent-ready. We scope to where you are, not to a fixed product.
How fast do we see something working?
An Advise engagement produces a first shippable proof inside its own phases, not after. Typically that is one agent-readable surface — a portion of catalog, a search behavior, a checkout flow, a loyalty signal — live in market before the Build phase opens. Operators get signal early; the Build phase compounds on what's already producing it.
What does Advise look like in practice?
Scoped advisory engagements that work an immediate growth problem across the lifecycle. Typical scopes: making a catalog, content, or offers agent-discoverable (Discovery); rebuilding search for the AEO and agent era (Search); the integration and storefront strategy that lets agents transact (Commerce); getting payment flows agent-ready (Payments). Loyalty rides underneath as the foundation layer, never sold standalone.