1. Why this?
What is your end goal? What is the problem you're trying to solve, and is a website or app the best way to do it? Sometimes we leap to conclusions without looking for more efficient ways to address the issue at hand. Have you confirmed that this is the next, best path to take to accomplish your underlying business goal?
2. Why now?
What changed recently that's motivating this project? How much do you stand to gain from a new website or app? How much is NOT having this particular solution costing your business? In some cases, a project needs to be fast tracked. But waiting can also be an advantage, if it allows you to collect more data and come up with a clearer path to success.
3. Who benefits?
Do you know who your audience is, and what they stand to gain by using your product or service? Knowing who you're serving will make your eventual website or app truly user-centric, and will make many of your decisions that much easier.
4. Has this been done before?
Do you know who your competition is? Are you offering something different? What are successful companies in your industry doing right, and where are they dropping the ball? What opportunities can you take advantage of?
5. Do you have a brand?
If this is a new property, creating a unique name, logo, and visual language is essential when it comes to designing the UI for your website or app. Wireframes and prototypes can often be created ahead of time, but branding is a key ingredient when it comes time to creating the design that users will actually see. After all, creating a UI that references an existing brand is a defining characteristic of a custom web build. If it's tacked on at the end, you might as well be using a template.
6. Is your content ready (or underway)?
If you're about to build a website, you should have a sense of the new content you'd like to share. A quality web team will help you come up with the overall site structure, but it's the content that informs that structure. Nine times out of ten, projects get delayed because the content isn't ready. And if you're able to have at least a first draft ready in time for the design phase of your project, the design can serve the content that much better.
7. What does success look like?
Every web project should serve a specific goal. How will you measure your progress? What numbers are important to you and your business, where are they now, and where would you like to see them go as a result of this project? Once you have an idea of the metrics of your project, you can start thinking about what you're willing to spend to get to your immediate goal. Which brings us to…
8. What are you willing to invest?
With a sound business strategy, a website or app is an investment in a specific outcome with a measurable return. If the change you're looking to make is significant, be prepared to invest in kind. If you're simply looking to launch an MVP to test your product or its target market, you can hire a specialized web team to reach that specific goal. And if your budget is a limiting factor, consider solutions that require a smaller effort, and a more modest investment. Just bear in mind that your budget should be comparable to the result you seek, so plan accordingly.
