When an organization decides it needs a new website, the next steps can seem obvious: research platforms, evaluate agencies, establish a budget, and start talking about timelines.
But those decisions often come too early. Selecting the right agency or technology solution cannot compensate for a project that begins without organizational clarity.
Before deciding who will build the website or what technology will power it, organizations need to understand what the website must accomplish, what requirements will shape the project, and how success will be measured.
Many problems blamed on development, including expanding scope, missed deadlines, budget pressure, rework, and stakeholder disagreements, actually begin much earlier. A successful website project starts by defining the problem before choosing the solution.
Poor Planning Has a Compounding Cost
The earlier a website team identifies its goals, requirements, and constraints, the easier it is to account for them in the project plan. When those details surface later, they can affect work that has already been scoped, designed, or developed.
Consider an organization that knows its new website will need to integrate with several existing business systems. That's a useful starting point, but it leaves important questions unanswered:
- What information needs to move between those systems?
- Where will it appear?
- Who can access it?
- What does the integration need to allow users to accomplish?
If those answers aren't uncovered until development is underway, the impact can extend well beyond the integration itself.
- Designs may need to change.
- Additional functionality may need to be scoped.
- Development work may need to be revisited.
Suddenly, one overlooked requirement is putting significant pressure on both the project's budget and timeline.
The same pattern can play out throughout a website project. Content migration turns out to be more extensive than expected. A critical business requirement wasn't included in the original scope. A workflow that looked straightforward requires more functionality once the details are understood. Each discovery may lead to additional decisions and work.
Not every change can or should be predicted. New information will emerge as a project progresses. But there is an important difference between adapting to something new and paying to solve a problem that could have been identified earlier.
Discovery Should Start Before You Choose an Agency
Discovery is often treated as something that happens after an organization selects a website partner. In reality, some of the most valuable discovery can begin internally before an agency is ever involved.
At this stage, you don't need to write a complete technical specification or map out the entire future website. You just need to develop a shared understanding of what your organization knows, what it needs, and what remains uncertain.
Start with questions like:
- Why are we redesigning the website now?
- What isn't working today?
- Who are our most important audiences?
- What do those audiences need to accomplish?
- What does the business need the website to accomplish?
- Which systems will the website need to work with?
- Who will manage the website after launch?
- What does success look like?
You may not have an answer to every question, and that's okay. Identifying what you don't know yet is part of the process.
An unanswered question can be investigated during discovery with an agency partner. An assumption that no one realizes they're making is much more likely to cause problems later.
If you're starting to explore a website refresh, Americaneagle.com's free Website Redesign Readiness Questionnaire provides prompts designed to help clarify goals, requirements, constraints, and success metrics before engaging vendors. Download it now to identify important considerations and avoid major pitfalls.
Don't Start With "Which Platform Should We Use?"
It's easy to understand why technology becomes an early focus. Platforms are tangible. You can compare features, watch demos, review integrations, and build lists of pros and cons. And if your current technology is creating obvious problems, replacing it can feel like the natural starting point.
But choosing technology before understanding your requirements can lead to serious issues. So, it’s important for brands to reverse the decision-making process.
Instead of starting with, "Which platform should we use?"
Start with, "What does our organization need the website to do?"
An organization managing a portfolio of websites may need strong multisite governance. An ecommerce business could have complex ERP, product data, pricing, or customer-account requirements. Another business may primarily need a CMS that makes everyday publishing easier for a small marketing team.
The point isn't that you shouldn't research platforms early. It's that the technology should ultimately be evaluated against your requirements, rather than allowing a preferred technology to determine them.
The same principle applies to agencies. Before you can evaluate who is best equipped to solve your website challenges, you first need to understand what those challenges actually are.
Let Your Goals & Requirements Drive the Project
Your goals and requirements should provide the foundation for almost every major decision that follows, including technology, scope, budget, functionality, integrations, user experience, and measurement.
Start with the business problems behind the project.
A goal such as "modernize the website" or "improve the user experience" establishes a general direction, but it doesn't provide much guidance when difficult decisions need to be made.
Instead, ask why.
Why does the website need to be modernized? Maybe customers struggle to find products. Perhaps your marketing team depends on developers for routine updates. Maybe prospective customers aren't finding the information they need to move forward. That problem gives the project a purpose.
You can then connect the problem to an objective and determine how success will be measured. If prospective customers struggle to find appropriate service information, for example, the objective might be to improve discovery and create clearer paths toward conversion. Success could then be evaluated against relevant business and website metrics.
Requirements deserve similar scrutiny.
"Our new website needs better search" sounds straightforward, but what does "better" mean? Does search need to span multiple websites? Do visitors need to filter results? Are external data sources involved? Should particular types of information receive greater prominence?
These same types of detailed questions can emerge around many other aspects of the site. Focus on identifying the business and technical requirements significant enough to influence the project's direction.
Once you understand those requirements, evaluating technology, estimating scope, establishing budgets, and eventually comparing potential partners becomes much more meaningful.
Better Preparation Leads to Better Recommendations
Eventually, internal planning needs to turn into action. That doesn't mean you need to arrive at your first agency conversation with a finished RFP, approved sitemap, or complete technical specification.
In fact, trying to design the solution yourself can create another set of limitations. Instead, concentrate on what you know about the business.
Be prepared to explain:
- Why the project is happening: What is wrong with the current website, and why does it matter now?
- What needs to change: Which business, user, technical, or operational problems should the new site address?
- Who the website serves: Who are your most important audiences, and what do they need to accomplish?
- What you already know about the technology: Which systems, integrations, functionality, or other technical requirements need consideration?
- How your organization works: Who owns the project, who needs to provide input, and who will operate the site after launch?
- What constraints exist: What do you know about budget, business deadlines, internal resources, and dependencies?
- What success looks like: Which business outcomes or metrics will tell you whether the project accomplished what it was supposed to?
This level of preparation will give you a better basis for evaluating the recommendations you eventually receive from prospective vendors. Instead of comparing potential agencies and platforms primarily by feature lists, presentations, or price, you can ask a much more useful question: Does this proposed solution address what our organization actually needs?
Start With the Questions, Not the Solution
A website project may eventually involve strategists, designers, developers, marketers, technology providers, and other specialists. But some of its most consequential work happens before any of them enter the picture.
Start by understanding the problem. Define what the website needs to accomplish. Document the requirements you already know. Identify what you still need to figure out. Establish what success should look like.
Proper planning isn't simply about getting organized before a website project begins. It's about reducing project risk.
Taking the time to clarify requirements, priorities, dependencies, and constraints upfront can lead to more accurate scoping and fewer surprises later, reducing the likelihood of expanding scope, costly rework, budget overruns, and avoidable delays.
Not sure if you're ready to start talking platforms, budgets, or agencies just yet? That's exactly what our free Website Redesign Readiness Questionnaire is designed to help you figure out. Download it now to work through the questions internally and identify where you need more clarity. When you're ready, connect with Americaneagle.com to talk through what comes next.
