The brief looked perfect. Interesting brand, reasonable timeline, clear budget. The client came p...The brief looked perfect. Interesting brand, reasonable timeline, clear budget. The client came p...
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Sonia Vovchuk
pro
• May 28
The brief looked perfect.
Interesting brand, reasonable timeline, clear budget. The client came prepared — references, competitors, a mood board they’d already put together.
I said yes within 48 hours.
Three weeks in, I understood what I’d missed.
Every feedback round started with “we love it, but…” followed by a direction that contradicted the previous one. The moodboard they’d prepared wasn’t a brief — it was a collection of things they liked with no logic connecting them. When I asked what the website needed to make the visitor do, the answer changed every call.
The problem wasn’t the design. It was that no one had decided what the project was actually for.
I finished the work. It was fine. Not the kind of fine I’m proud of — the kind that gets approved because everyone is tired of the process.
What I missed in that first call was simple.
I asked what they wanted the website to look like. I didn’t ask what problem the website needed to solve. I didn’t ask who would be making decisions and what “done” meant to them. I didn’t ask what had already been tried.
Now I ask three questions before any project starts:
“What is the visitor supposed to understand in the first ten seconds?” If the answer is vague, the brief isn’t ready.
“Who has the final say — and have they seen this conversation?” If there’s a decision-maker I haven’t spoken to, the project has a hidden variable I can’t design around.
“What does success look like six months after launch?” If the answer is “a beautiful website,” we’re not aligned on what design is for.
These questions don’t filter out difficult clients. They filter out misaligned ones — which is a different problem entirely.
The best collaborations I’ve had started with a client who could answer all three clearly. Not perfectly — clearly.
If you’re starting a website project and want to make sure the brief is solid before the design begins — I’d be glad to walk through it with you.
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