A web design client onboarding process that ends in a buildable brief
Onboarding is the gap between a signed contract and the first build, and most project delays are born there. A good web design client onboarding process ends with four things in hand: answers to the questions that change the site, the client's real assets, a short plan they've agreed, and rules for how feedback and sign-off will work.
Before the kickoff call
Send a short welcome email the day the contract is signed, with the date of the kickoff call and a list of what to bring. Clients who arrive with their logo, a few photos and the names of two sites they admire save you a week. Decide now, too, whose account the project will live in: yours, or a Team workspace the client pays for and invites you into. Changing that later is a rebuild, not a setting.
The kickoff questions that change the build
Long questionnaires get skimmed. Ask the questions whose answers change what you'll make, and leave the rest for later.
- What should a visitor do? Call, book, send an enquiry, buy through a link, sign up. One main action.
- Who is the visitor? The specific person and what they're worried about when they arrive.
- What must the site say that it doesn't today? Prices, areas served, opening hours, new-customer status.
- What features are non-negotiable? Bookings, a menu that changes weekly, a newsletter. Check each against what the builder does before you promise it.
- What's the look? Two sites they like and one they dislike, and why. Better than adjectives.
- Who approves? One named person with the final word, and how quickly they can reply.
Collecting assets without chasing for weeks
- A shared folder with named subfolders: logo, photos, team, documents. Clients fill a structure faster than a blank space.
- A deadline tied to the schedule. "Photos by the 12th keeps launch on the 30th."
- Real photos over stock. Upload them into the project; Anticode checks each file by its first bytes and stores it under your account, and the model sees photos when it places them. Videos are placed by name. If photos are missing, design-engine pages can use a curated photo library with written alt text until the client's own arrive.
- Text in a document, not in emails. One document per page, which you'll edit for length.
Confirm direction with a first plan
Before you build, turn the kickoff answers into a request to Anticode's Architect. It replies, asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build (each with suggested answers), and shows a short plan: the site's name, its kind, the sections, the look and the features. That plan is a useful onboarding document in itself. Send it to the client in your own words with the proposed design direction, such as Swiss for a clean, practical feel or Organic for something warmer, and ask for a yes or a correction in one reply.
This is the cheapest moment to change direction. A sentence of correction now costs nothing; the same correction after a full build costs a round of revisions.
Agree how review and sign-off will work
- How they'll review
- Through a client review link: the current preview, no account needed, comments tied to sections. Each link lasts 14 days by default.
- How many rounds
- The number in the contract, and what happens after it.
- Who comments
- Anyone at the client may comment; only the named approver decides.
- What approval looks like
- A written reply naming the version going live.
Write these into a one-page project summary and send it with the plan. The client sign-off workflow covers the review stage itself.
How you know onboarding worked
The first build needs no structural changes, only wording and photos. The client knows when their next decision is due. And you haven't sent a single "just checking in about the photos" email after the deadline, because the deadline was clear and tied to the launch date.
What stays outside Anticode
The contract, the invoice for the deposit, the kickoff call, the shared folder and the welcome email are yours, in your own tools. Anticode handles the plan, the assets once uploaded, the build and the review links. Its forms don't accept file uploads, so don't plan to collect client assets through the site you're building. For what to gather, see content to gather before building and collecting website content from a client.
Questions people ask
How long should client onboarding take?
For a small site, about a week from contract to agreed plan. Most of that is waiting for assets, so set the asset deadline on day one.
Should I send a questionnaire or hold a call?
A short call with six focused questions, followed by a written summary, works better than a long form. Clients answer forms in a hurry and calls in detail.
Can the client see the plan before I build?
Yes. Copy the Architect's plan into your summary, or build a quick preview and send a review link. The client needs no account to view it.