1. [   ] Review business and marketing goals that need to be achieved
   • Before planning and designing your website and connected platforms you need to ensure that your key business goals remain the critical focus.
   • The downfall of countless websites begins when business goals are ignored in favor of metric monitoring and over development of features.
   • Online business decisions require delicate attention to the organic and forced progression of online standards and practices driving the types of interactions businesses can build to drive business and marketing goals forward.
   • Before embarking on your website design ensure you have planned your content/inventory, consulted your team (designers, developers, marketers, admins, content creators), regulatory restrictions, and researched your target market.
2. [   ] Map conversion funnels for leads, revenue, and marketing efforts
   • A macro view of the funnels which will drive leads, revenue, and marketing efforts to build a sustainable foundation for your online business expand outward.
   • These funnels will inevitable flex and change over time as the online ecosystem mutates making once effective methods unfeasible forcing methods and strategies to evolve or face extinction.
   • Making sure your users have a clear path will ensure that those seeking your services or information can find a solution without frustration in a timely manner will lead to a better user experience and higher conversions.
3. [   ] Find references accomplishing similar functionality or aesthetic
   • Search the keywords you will be targeting based on your marketing and audience research to find strong competitors and attempt to leverage under utilized but high volume keywords.
   • Research the tools and functionality of your strongest competitors and examine key weak points for competitive advantages.
   • Weaker competitors may still have a notable market share but can be overcome by providing tremendous value to the market by over delivering in critical areas of differentiation.
   • Be careful to not focus too much on your competitors features and aesthetic as to not stray away from what makes your business and online experience unique.
4. [   ] Distinguish between aesthetic and functional requirements
   • Once you have your references and design goals established the next step is to clearly define which elements of your reference designs are important.
   • Some of your references may have an overall feel that you want to emanate but the business goals are different meaning the aesthetic is the key consideration of the reference.
   • Other references may not have the aesthetic appeal but offer insight into functionality and features that could benefit your audience.
   • Defining and distinguishing the key elements of your references will help communicate which aspects of the design are critical to business logic and which parts service an aesthetic purpose to enhance the business logic.
5. [   ] Create a sitemap to visualize page hierarchy and user flow
   • We are now at the point where we need to merge our high level ideas with our concrete requirements and design goals.
   • Creating a simple sitemap showing the hierarchy of pages allows an overview of the site structure and can aid in visualizing funnels designed to drive users to points of conversion.
   • If your sitemap is complicated or confusing you can imagine a user's difficulty navigating your website with all the additional links and content on screen leading to a frustrating user experience and poor conversions.
6. [   ] Mockup storyboards and wireframes for project specifications
   • At this point in the project we will have a firm grasp on the foundation of our online system and can begin to mock-up key elements and sections.
   • Do not focus on creating high fidelity mock-ups at this stage, we are creating blocking for spacing, content, and typography.
   • The designs at this stage will be are not representative of the final aesthetic including color and images.
   • We are focusing on readability, layout across devices, and finalizing prototype specifications through design iteration.
   • The primary goal is to fine tune marketing copy and user experience without the distraction of tweaking the finer aesthetic details before finalizing the design specifications. 
7. [   ] Interview/Brief web designer for fit and consultation
   • Having an in-house or contracted web designer is an excellent asset and recommend integrating your designer and other creatives into early discussions to help inform business impacts of web design decisions.
   • If you are hiring one-time or a new web designer its important to get the designer with the best fit for your team and projects.
   • This is especially important for smaller businesses which may make the mistake of hiring a web designer when they need a web developer, vice versa , or both so make sure to fully explain the expectations of your web designer as some are extremely talented artists that design amazing websites but do not code or build the design.
   • On the other hand, some web designers use prototyping tools to create interactive designs but will need a developer to build the functionality.
   • Furthermore, many marketers make use of use visual builders and/or themes to design and create websites without coding using third-party plugins.
   • Determining what your business needs from your web designer and finding a web designer with a complimentary workflow and skill set will remove friction and increase effectiveness from both parties.
8. [   ] Review goals, revise specifications, and reorient the team often
   • Depending on your timeline it could be weeks or months since you first met with your team and decided on the marketing, design, business, and feature goals of your web project.
   • Specifications outlined early in the planning phases may be no longer relevant or as impactful as originally proposed once the user sitemap, wireframes, and mockups have been fully realized exposing flaws in original plans.
   • The online ecosystem changes quickly so regrouping at this point can help to inject critical insights from recent developments which could hinder the project financially or technically.
   • Reorienting the team at and after this point will help to ensure that the project comes together as a complete package rather than a series of parts semi-functioning and lacking synergy.
9. [   ] Create strong internal communication channels between teams
   • If your teams struggle to communicate your teams will begin to work increasingly inefficiently as the interdependent teams internal deadlines and external roadblocks hinder development or create major issues in the long run.
   • Creating internal communication procedures gives team leaders the tools to effectively communicate tasks and seek information from supporting external teams.
   • Preventing communication issues and promoting systems that allow interdependent teams to share resources and ideas will increase productivity and reduce future work caused by incomplete features.
   • This communication system can be as simple as email threads and video calls or as complex as ticketing systems and intranet information systems
10. [   ] Balance creative freedoms and restraints to keep everyone sane
    • Communicating with your designer while they begin their creative process is critical to getting the best quality work of your designer.
    • Explaining expectations at different stages of iteration can save time and stress as concepts are not over-developed during discovery or under-realized during finalization.
    • Clearly defining areas that should or should not be explored  can help to guide the creative direction without explicitly saying that this is right or this is wrong.
    • Give your designer space to be loose and creative where you want their expertise to enhance the aesthetic and conversely where they need to be tight and concise to deliver on specific branding and marketing goals.
    • Be realistic with expectations and open to suggestions that will improve workflow, communication, and teamwork as the designer contacts and interacts with multiple departments to reduce downtime.