Seven questions a website strategy must answer before design starts⁠

Design is where a website becomes visible, so it is tempting to start there. The problem is that every design decision quietly answers a strategic question. Which section goes first, how big the call to action is, which proof appears where. If the question is still open, the designer answers it by default, usually based on what looks right, not on what the business needs.

These are the seven questions we answer with a client before any design work begins. None of them take long. All of them save time later.

1. What is the website’s main job?

Leads, sign-ups, applications, trust with investors, support for existing customers, or a mix. Pick the main job, rank the others, and be honest about what the website is not for.

A website that tries to do everything equally ends up doing nothing particularly well. When the main job is clear, it becomes much easier to say no to the sections, pages and features that do not serve it.

2. Who is it for?

The two or three groups that matter most, and what each of them needs to understand before they act. For many B2B companies that is the person who will use the service, the person who approves the budget, and the person who checks the risk, such as IT, legal or procurement.

Write down what each group is looking for, what worries them, and what would make them contact you. Those lists become the structure of your key pages.

3. What should they do next?

For every key page, one clear next step. Book a call, request a quote, download a guide, see pricing, apply.

A page with five equal calls to action has none. Secondary actions are fine, but they should look secondary.

4. What makes you the obvious choice?

The proof that sets you apart: results, clients, methods, certifications, people. Not adjectives. “Fast, reliable and innovative” describes almost every company in almost every market.

A good exercise is to write down the three things your best clients say about you when they recommend you to someone else. That is your positioning, in words your buyers already believe.

5. How will you measure it?

The numbers you will look at every quarter, and whether you can already track them. Qualified leads by source, conversion by page type, applications per role, pipeline influenced by the website.

If you cannot measure the main job today, fix that before the redesign. Otherwise you will launch a new website with no way of knowing whether it works better than the old one.

6. Who will keep it alive?

Which people publish new content, how often, and what they need to do it without help. Case studies every month, articles every week, new job openings every few days, a new market next year.

This question shapes the content model and the templates. It is also the question most often skipped, which is why so many websites freeze a few months after launch.

7. What has to connect to it?

CRM, marketing automation, analytics, consent, applicant tracking, product data, customer portals. The answers shape the build as much as the design does, and some of them take longer to solve than any page.

List every system the website needs to talk to, who owns it on your side, and what data has to move between them.

Why it matters

With these answers written down, design reviews stop being a matter of taste. The question changes from “do we like it?” to “does it do the job?”, and that is a question the whole team can agree on.

Strategy is the brief that design cannot write for itself.

How to run it

You do not need a long workshop. A focused session with marketing, sales and someone who knows your systems is usually enough to answer most of the questions, followed by a short written summary everyone signs off on.

Keep that summary next to the design files. When a new idea comes up during the project, check it against the seven answers. If it does not help the main job, the audience or the next step, it can wait.