Having worked with very many internal and external customers over the years (since 1999 to be precise) there are certain things that need to be clarified at the beginning to help ensure projects do not go off track and scope creep is minimised. The clearer that both the supplier and the client are at the beginning the smoother and faster that delivery can be achived.
About the client:
How established is your business?
Who are your competitors?
What is your sales process?
What’s your primary message that clients need to know?
How many people are in your company?
What do you sell? Or what is your list of services or main products?
What differentiates you from your competitors?
What’s your tagline?
What is the geographic territory that your business service?
About Our Project:
How many people are part of the building process?
Who are the decision makers? You or a group?
What are your expectations? What problem does the website need to solve?
What don’t you want?
Do you have a website already?
What is your time line?
What is your budget?
How far along are you in the process already?
Have you worked with another designer before?
Why are you not working with your previous designer?
How involved do you like to be in the process?
Is your site meant to be a lead generator or an online brochure?
Who is writing the content?
Which primary keywords are you intending to target?
Design:
Do you have images we are able to use already?
Do you have a logo / branding?
Do you have a favorite colour? Colour scheme?
Do you have websites that are you are inspired by?
Technical:
Do you have a domain yet?
Do you have hosting arranged?
How is your email configured?
Do you have a google account that you use? Can we use your existing account or should we set one up? (We need this for Analytics & Webmaster Tools)
Working Style:
How do you prefer to communicate? Emails, Skype, in person, phone?
Web Presence:
What else do you need in addition to a website?
Do you have social media accounts (twitter, google+, facebook etc)?
Do you plan on blogging?
Do you want training on WordPress?
Do you need an email capture plan set up (build a list of leads)?
Do you want us to customize templates in an email platform to match your web design?