What to Prepare Before Hiring a Web Developer
You do not need a complete specification before speaking with a developer. You do need a clear business goal, an owner for decisions, known constraints, and an honest inventory of content and systems.
Written by Anthony Barbaro, independent designer and developer in San Diego.
Direct answer
Start here.
Prepare a one-page brief covering the audience, primary action, required pages, current problems, launch constraint, budget context, decision-makers, existing accounts, and who will supply content. Mark unknowns instead of inventing requirements.
Working document
Pre-project brief
Copy this list into your project notes and verify each item before committing money, access, or a launch date.
- Business offer and primary audience
- Most valuable visitor action
- Current website problems and useful parts to preserve
- Required pages, features, locations, products, or integrations
- Available copy, photography, brand files, and legal text
- Domain, DNS, hosting, analytics, CMS, and platform owners
- Budget range and any fixed launch date
- Decision-maker, reviewers, and approval process
Decision detail
Describe the outcome before the feature list
Start with what a useful visitor should understand and do. A request for “a modern website” gives a developer little to evaluate; a need to increase qualified quote requests for a specific service creates a decision framework.
Name the audience, their main uncertainty, and the action that matters. Features can then be tested against that outcome instead of accumulating because competitors have them.
Related service: Small Business Web Design
Decision detail
Inventory content and account ownership
Collect current copy, brand files, photographs, product data, service descriptions, policies, and legal requirements. Label what is approved, what needs revision, and who owns each missing item.
List the accounts connected to the website: domain registrar, DNS, hosting, email, analytics, booking, ecommerce, payments, CRM, and advertising. Do not send passwords in a brief; confirm that an authorized owner can grant secure access when needed.
Decision detail
Separate requirements from assumptions
A required integration, compliance constraint, or launch date should be explicit. Preferences such as a particular framework or animation may be assumptions that deserve discussion.
Mark unknowns openly. A strong developer can help turn business needs into technical decisions, but hidden constraints discovered after signing usually affect cost or schedule.
FAQ
Related questions
Short answers to the follow-up questions that often appear during this decision.
Do I need all my website copy before contacting a developer?
No. You should know who owns the copy and whether writing or editing must be included in scope. Real content should arrive early enough to validate layouts before launch.
Should I share my budget?
A realistic range helps the developer propose an appropriate first release. Ask them to explain what changes across scope levels rather than treating the range as permission to spend every dollar.
Apply this to your project