Start with a business problem
“We need a modern website” describes an appearance, not an outcome. Explain what is difficult today: visitors cannot understand the offer, inquiries lack useful information, or the team cannot update content. Choose one primary action you want a visitor to take. That decision gives every page a purpose and makes competing requests easier to prioritize.
Describe the people using it
List the questions prospective customers ask before contacting you. What do they already know, and what makes them hesitate? Use real conversations, support requests and sales notes where available. A useful audience description explains needs and context rather than inventing a detailed fictional persona.
Make content someone’s responsibility
Design depends on content. Decide who supplies service details, reviews copy and approves images. Inventory the material you already have, identify gaps and separate must-have launch content from later additions. For bilingual sites, include both languages in the schedule from the beginning; translation can change navigation lengths and page layouts.
Name the constraints early
Share the budget range, target date, existing hosting and tools that must remain connected. Identify who can approve decisions and provide account access. Constraints are useful design information. A realistic first release is usually more valuable than a long feature list with no clear owner or delivery sequence.
Agree how you will judge the result
Define observable acceptance criteria: a visitor can find a service, complete an inquiry on mobile and switch languages without losing their place. Add technical checks for accessibility, loading behaviour and redirects. Record a baseline for business measurements, but avoid assigning arbitrary improvement percentages before you have reliable data.