Put the customer journey into your website brief

Key takeaways

A website brief that includes the customer journey gets a site designed for buyers, not for the brief-writer's taste. Add four things: your main buyer types and what each is trying to get done, a one-page journey map for each, the three to five key tasks the site must make easy, and journey measures that will define success. Agencies can then quote, design and test against real needs.

• Add 2 to 4 buyer types with their goals and questions.
• Attach a one-page journey map per buyer type.
• List the 3 to 5 key tasks: enquire, book, get a price, find help.
• Define success by journey measures, not by looks.

Why should a website brief include the customer journey?

A brief should include the customer journey because it is the clearest statement of what the website must do. Without it, agencies design from your preferences, competitors' sites and their own templates. With it, they can see which pages matter, which answers are missing and which tasks must be quick, and they can quote for research, structure and content rather than just design.

• How to design a website around your customer journey
• A website brief template agencies can quote from

What journey information belongs in the brief?

Include enough to guide design without overwhelming it. Buyer types, journey maps, key tasks, top questions and current problems with evidence are the core. Add your analytics baseline so the agency can measure improvement.

• Buyer types: 2 to 4, with goals, triggers and decision factors.
• Journey maps: one page each, with the main breaks marked.
• Key tasks: 3 to 5, with where they start.
• Top questions: the ten most-asked, by journey stage.
• Current problems: with evidence from analytics or customers.
• Baseline: landing pages, enquiry rate, key drop-offs.

• Customer journey mapping for small businesses in one day
• A customer journey map template for website planning

What if you have not mapped the journey yet?

If you have not mapped the journey, say so and ask agencies to include a short research and mapping phase in their quote. Give them what you have: customer types, common questions and analytics access. A good agency will propose interviews and a mapping session before design. One that skips straight to visuals is designing on assumptions.

• Questions to ask a web design agency before signing
• What journey mapping and journey-led design cost in the UK

How do you define success in journey terms?

Define success with measures tied to the journey stages: more visitors moving from entry pages to service pages, more viewing pricing and proof, a higher enquiry rate, faster form completion, fewer repetitive questions, and a better Journey Fit Scorecard score. Set a baseline before the project and agree when you will measure after launch.

• Customer journey metrics: the numbers that show it working
• Setting website redesign goals that you can measure

How should agencies respond to a journey-led brief?

A good response shows how the agency will use the journey: how it will validate the map, how structure and content will follow it, which tasks it will test and how it will measure the result. Ask to see the information architecture and user flows before visual design. Proposals that only show mood boards have not engaged with the journey.

• Information architecture for small business websites
• User flows: plan each route through your website

When can the brief stay simple?

The brief can stay simple for small sites with one buyer type and a short journey. A paragraph describing the customer, their top five questions and the main action you want is enough. The principle is the same: tell the designer who the site is for and what it must help them do.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in website briefs: pages of brand guidance, a list of competitor sites the owner likes, and one line about customers. Proposals come back with attractive designs and no plan for the questions buyers ask, so the new site repeats the old one's gaps.

Adding two buyer types, their questions and the three key tasks changes what agencies propose and what they test. Across our client work we have seen a 2.4x enquiry rate from conversion changes of this kind. Global Bridge Labs (GBL) asks for the journey before the mood board.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Journey brief checklist

• Describe 2 to 4 buyer types and their goals.
• Attach journey maps or ask for a mapping phase.
• List 3 to 5 key tasks and where they start.
• Add the top questions by journey stage.
• Include an analytics baseline.
• Define success in journey measures.

• The customer journey scorecard: score your website in an hour

Next step

A journey-led brief gets better proposals and a better site. We will help you write one, or review the one you have.