We asked. They answered.
Over the past year, we started asking every client the same question at the end of a project: "What do you wish you'd known before we started?"
The answers were surprisingly consistent. Not complaints — more like the kind of advice you'd give a friend who was about to go through the same process. Practical, honest, sometimes uncomfortable truths that would have saved them stress, time, or second-guessing.
Here's what came up again and again.
"I wish I'd known how much input was expected from me"
This is the number one answer, by a distance. Most clients come into a website project expecting to hand over a brief, disappear for six weeks, and receive a finished website. That's not how it works — at least not if you want something good.
A website project is a collaboration. You'll need to:
- Provide feedback regularly. Not once at the end, but at multiple stages throughout the process. Quick, honest feedback early on saves weeks of wasted work later.
- Make decisions. Colour palettes, page structures, content priorities, feature trade-offs. Some of these decisions feel small but they compound. Indecision is the single biggest cause of project delays.
- Gather your content. Copy, photography, team bios, product descriptions, testimonials. This almost always takes longer than anyone expects, and the project can't progress without it.
The best projects we've delivered are the ones where the client treated it as a priority, not a side task they'd get around to eventually.
"I wish I'd sorted out our content first"
Content is the part of a website project that everyone underestimates. You can have the most beautiful design in the world, but if the words on the page are wrong — or missing entirely — the site won't work.
Here's what we recommend before a project kicks off:
- Write down what your business actually does, in plain language, as if you're explaining it to someone at a dinner party. Not marketing speak. Not jargon. Just the truth.
- Identify your top 3-5 pages and what each one needs to communicate. Home, About, Services, Contact — what's the one thing a visitor should take away from each?
- Gather testimonials and case studies. These are the hardest content to produce mid-project because they rely on other people. Start collecting them now.
- Get your photography sorted. Stock photos are fine as placeholders, but they undermine trust. Even a few good original photos make a massive difference.
You don't need polished copy before we start — that's something we can help with. But having a clear sense of your messaging saves everyone time.
"I wish I'd been more honest about my budget"
This one's awkward, but it came up repeatedly. Clients often avoid stating a budget because they're worried about being overcharged. We get it. But here's the reality: knowing your budget helps us design the right solution, not just the most expensive one.
A $5,000 budget and a $20,000 budget lead to genuinely different approaches. Neither is wrong — they're just different scopes. When we know what we're working with, we can be upfront about what's realistic and what isn't, rather than designing something you can't afford and then cutting it down painfully.
The worst outcome is when a client says "just tell us what it costs," we scope a $15,000 project, and their actual budget was $4,000. Everyone's wasted time, and the relationship starts with a mismatch.
Be honest about what you can spend. We'll be honest about what that gets you.
"I wish I'd understood that the first draft wouldn't be perfect"
Design is iterative. The first thing we show you is not the finished product — it's the starting point for a conversation. It's supposed to provoke a reaction, surface preferences you didn't know you had, and give us something concrete to refine.
Clients who understand this have a much better experience. They look at the first round and say "I love this direction but the typography feels too formal" or "the layout is right but the colour palette needs to feel warmer." That's incredibly useful feedback.
Clients who expect the first draft to be the final product get anxious. They think something has gone wrong. They start questioning whether they chose the right agency. Nothing has gone wrong — this is literally how the process works.
Three rounds of refinement is normal. Two is fast. One is suspicious.
"I wish I'd involved fewer people in the feedback process"
Design by committee is where good work goes to die. Every client who mentioned this said the same thing: they involved too many stakeholders in the review process, and the feedback became contradictory, diluted, and impossible to act on.
Our recommendation: appoint one or two decision-makers. They can gather input from the wider team, but the final call needs to sit with people who have the authority and context to make it. When six people with different priorities are all giving equal-weight feedback, the result is a compromise that excites nobody.
If you're the CEO and you want to delegate the website project to your marketing manager, that's fine — but actually delegate. Don't override their decisions three rounds in because you finally looked at it and have different opinions.
"I wish I'd thought about what happens after launch"
A website isn't a one-time project — it's an ongoing asset. The clients who planned for post-launch maintenance had a much smoother experience than those who assumed the site would just run itself.
Things to think about before you start:
- Who's updating the content? Blog posts, team changes, new products, seasonal updates. Someone needs to own this.
- How are you handling hosting and security? Updates, SSL certificates, backups, uptime monitoring. This needs to be someone's responsibility.
- What's your SEO plan? A well-built site gives you a strong foundation, but maintaining and improving your search rankings requires ongoing effort.
- What's the budget for ongoing improvements? The best websites evolve. You'll want to add features, refine content, and respond to how real users interact with the site.
We offer support packages for exactly this reason, but even if you handle it in-house, have a plan.
"I wish I'd trusted the process more"
This one was the most heartfelt. Several clients admitted that midway through the project, they panicked. The site was half-built, it didn't look finished (because it wasn't), and they started worrying they'd made a mistake.
Then the final pieces came together — the real content went in, the responsive design clicked, the animations and interactions were added — and suddenly it all made sense. The relief was enormous, but the worry had been unnecessary.
If you've chosen an agency you trust, let them do their thing. Ask questions, give feedback, stay involved — but resist the urge to catastrophise when the work-in-progress looks like work-in-progress. That's what it's supposed to look like.
"I wish I'd started sooner"
Almost every client said some version of this. They'd been putting off the website project for months or years, and once it was done, they couldn't believe they'd waited so long. The new site started generating leads immediately. Their team felt proud to share the URL. Sales conversations became easier because the website did half the work.
The best time to invest in your website was yesterday. The second best time is now.
The short version
If you're about to start a website project, here's the cheat sheet:
- Block time in your calendar for it. It needs your attention, especially in the first few weeks.
- Start gathering content now. Copy, photos, testimonials, case studies.
- Be upfront about budget. It helps everyone.
- Keep the feedback team small. One or two decision-makers, maximum.
- Trust the process. It's iterative by design.
- Plan for life after launch. The site needs care and feeding.
- Don't wait. Every month without a good website is a month of missed opportunities.
And if you want to talk through any of this before committing, that's literally what our discovery calls are for. No pressure, no obligation — just an honest conversation about what you need and whether we're the right fit.