The Life of a Redesign Project. Part 1: First Contact

August 2011
This is part one of a series on the project lifecycle for a typical website redesign. Here is the intro and a little background on the idea.

The first phase of any of my projects begins after the initial contact with a prospective client. We’ve talked (depending on geography, either by meeting in person or conversations via phone, instant message, Skype, etc) and they’ve expressed an interest in my services. Usually I try to get as much detail about the project as possible during this interaction. First, I want to qualify them according to a few criteria: is it the type of work I do? Does the expected start time and duration fit into my workload? Is their budget reasonable and does it align with my rates?

Sometimes at this point I find out the client doesn’t have a budget, or they’re reluctant to tell me what it is. This isn’t always a deal breaker, but it could be a warning sign. No budget could mean a few things:

What They Really Need, Not Just Want

Once I know my skills, availability, and rates fit with the prospect’s general requirements, it’s time to get into more detail. Prior to writing a proposal, I give my prospective client a copy of this web design project kick-off questionnaire.

The questionnaire is a living document that gets edited and the questions asked are specific to each client’s project. They make a good starting point to get them thinking about their project in terms they can more easily communicate to the developer. What they tell me helps me need their needs better. For example: if the client anticipates that their initial content will quickly be outdated or needs frequent updates, my solution should probably include the ability to modify that content.

Sometimes clients come to me with very specific requests. They saw something somewhere and really liked it, their competitors have it so they need it, or they read or heard that technology X is “really hot right now”. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons behind these requests but other times what they think they want isn’t what they actually need to solve their real problem. The questionnaire can help me get to the bottom of that, uncover their goals, and tailor a solution to meet those goals. Not just keep up with trends and fads.

Eating My Own Dog Food

If you’ve ever heard that saying, then you know it’s a good idea to use your own products and services to show clients what you can do. That’s one reason why I’m keeping this journal of my own redesign. When the series is complete, I’ll have documented my process and have a much needed redesign of this site. The next post will cover my answers to the questionnaire and nail down requirements necessary for the proposal.

Additional Resources

Paul Boag from the UK firm Headscape has some excellent articles on the web development process and getting the most from the client and designer/developer relationship:

My kick-off questionnaire is based on the Freelance Switch article How to Extract the Facts with a Web Design Client Questionnaire. Martha’s excellent post contains some additional questions as well as explanations of the relevance and importance of each answer.

 

Similar Work:

  • http://twitter.com/TerranB Terran Birrell

    Excellent post Michael. This is really interesting! I wonder if you could be a little more specific when you give the client the questionnaire? It’s a pretty extensive document, so you must need to have a certain amount of buy-in/commitment from the client that they’re doing to work with YOU or they’re not going to take the time to fill it out. 

    Do you ever send them off with the questionnaire, then never hear from them?

  • Anonymous

    Hey Terran, glad you found it useful. You’re right that the document is pretty extensive (although I could probably still add some questions). I do edit it according to the client/project so not everybody gets the entire document. It would probably be overkill for smaller projects. And you’re right that it could be overwhelming or a turn-off to certain clients. But these are the types of things I’m gauging during our initial conversation.

    There is one person (he knows who he is) who hasn’t returned the questionnaire. But it think that has more to do with the tabling of the project than the document or the process. Again, the conversation isn’t simply, “Oh, you’re interesting in working with me? Here is a questionnaire I need you to answer about the work you want done.” As we talk about the project, I’m figuring out what questions I need answered (sometimes filling it out for myself) and trying to determine the buy-in you mentioned.

    Overall, I think if the client has put some thought into the goal(s) of the project and how they intend to get there, most of the questions should be fairly easy. If they haven’t, then the questionnaire can help them do that. If they’re not interested in/willing to do that work, that gives me a pretty good indication as to the likely success of the project.