Most website projects run late for a reason that has nothing to do with technology. The design is done, the code is done, and the copy has not arrived. Or nobody can find a usable version of the logo. Bring these five things to the brief and the real timeline moves into your control.
1. One specific goal
"We need a modern site" is not a measurable goal. "People should call", "orders should come in", "candidates should apply" — those are.
A page should have one main goal. Give it two and the visitor picks neither. Before you commission anything, write one sentence: what should a visitor do on this site? Every other decision follows from it.
2. A description of who you sell to
Age and gender will not get you far. What helps is different: what the customer searches for before they find you, what they ask, what they are unsure about.
The easiest source is your own inbox. Read back through your last ten customer conversations. Their questions are the site's list of sections — and the three that come up most often probably need answering on the home page itself.
3. Copy — a rough draft is enough
This is where projects stall. Copy is not something poured into a finished design; it is what sets the design's dimensions. A three-word headline and a twelve-word headline need different layouts.
It does not need to be polished. It needs to be real — your sentences instead of Lorem ipsum, however untidy. Editing happens together, later.
4. Logo and photographs, as originals
If a vector version of the logo exists (.svg, .ai, .pdf), find it. If not, the largest PNG will do, but the result will not be the same.
For photographs the rule is simple: the original from the phone's gallery, not the copy sent over WhatsApp. WhatsApp compresses images, and that compression shows on a large screen.
5. Who owns the domain
If you already have a site, establish up front whose name the domain is registered in and who holds the logins. This is where redesigns lose the most time: the design is finished, and access to the domain panel is still with a previous contractor who has stopped replying.
If a new domain is being bought, remember one thing: it should be registered in your name, not the agency's. It is the single detail that prevents an argument later.
With a client who arrives holding all five, the brief takes fifteen minutes and the project lands when it was supposed to. If none of it is ready, that is fine too — we work through it at the brief, it simply adds a few days.