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The whole project brief, in the order the website gets built
By the end you'll have the whole project brief written in a single document, in the order a website gets built, with no gaps for someone else to fill in on their own.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
Before you order a website, there are six decisions to make: where what you sell ends, the name of the site, the price you show before anyone asks, the date you can actually promise, the channel you want people to find you through, and the yardstick you'll use to measure whether the site is working. Usually, once you've made these decisions, each one lives in a different place: a note on your phone, a message you sent yourself, an idea that's clear in your head but you haven't written down anywhere yet.
The question here isn't about making any new decisions. It's about what order you put them in on the day you sit down to write up your website order. If you write them in the order they occurred to you, whoever builds the site has to stop and ask you about what's missing, and every question pushes back the day the site goes live.
The order the builder needs, not the one in your head
Whoever builds a website doesn't put it together piece by piece in the order things arrive: they build it from the outside in. First they need the framework, what you do and who it's for, because that's what the whole page structure comes from. Next the name, since that's the first thing written at the top, in the address bar and the title. Then the action you want visitors to take, because that determines which button goes where and what it links to.
Only then do the price, the date, and the channel make sense: they're the fine print of that action, not separate decisions on their own. The photos come near the end because they dress up what's already decided; they don't decide anything themselves. And the yardstick for measuring whether it worked comes last of all, because it's the only thing on the list that isn't built: it's checked afterward, once the site is up and running.
- 1What you do and who it's for
One sentence: what you do and who needs it. Include where what you sell ends: what's included in your service and what's billed separately. - 2The name of your website
The one you chose knowing it's going to live in the address bar, not the one that sounds best when you say it out loud. - 3What you want visitors to do
One single action, not three at once. Book, message you on WhatsApp, or buy: whichever one actually fills your schedule, not the one that looks best on the page. - 4The price you show
The one you decided to display before anyone asks: the exact number, or if it varies by case, "starting at" and the lowest you actually charge. If you sell to individual customers, show it with tax included. Without a price, people have to message you just to find out how much it is, and that's one extra question. - 5The date you promise
The one you can actually keep, not the one that sounds best on paper. If you can't give an exact date, a range of days is better than a promise you won't keep. - 6The channel
Where you want people to find you and reach out: the number, the link, the social account. The same one on your website and everywhere else you show up. - 7The photos you send
Three or four, not twenty. The ones that show what you're actually going to deliver: the location, work you've already done, or you yourself if you are the business. - 8The yardstick for measuring whether it worked
The number you'll check in the first week to know whether the site works as is or something needs to change.
Written out in full, not in scattered messages
Send the brief all at once, in a single document, even if it's less than a page. Sending it in three WhatsApp messages spread out over the week forces the builder to wait between one and the next, and to keep track of what's still missing. An eight-line document, even though it seems like too little to represent an entire business, is exactly what avoids the questions that come later.
It doesn't have to sound polished. Every line just needs a real answer, not a half-formed idea.
- The whole brief written in one document, in the order it gets built: what you do and who it's for, name, action, price, date, channel, photos, and the yardstick for measuring whether it worked.
- No blank lines: whatever isn't decided gets decided before you send the brief, not after.
- Whoever builds the site has everything they need without having to stop and ask you, which makes it easier for it to come out the way you pictured it.
Yodai builds the site from what you tell it, with a store, bookings or quote requests depending on what you do. See what the website for your business looks like.
NextThe yardstick for judging whether the website is good