Questions You *NEED* To Ask To Begin Scoping a Design Project

Preface – Project Scoping as a whole other topic I’d love to cover in more depth one day and talk about ALL the facets of effectively scoping a project. For now, this post aims to identify the very first basic questions you should be asking before taking on or quoting for a project.

It only takes one design project and a light brief/under scoping a project to suddenly make you regret either taking it on or not asking the right questions and things start to unravel. Trust me, I’ve been there! It can be a costly mistake on both the designer and client end, one you’d not want to make again. Hopefully some of the next few questions will help you next time you are scoping out a project so you don’t run into the pitfalls I did early on in my design career.

So when I say design project, I mean anything creative really – such print collateral, packaging, website design, social media or branding design for example. And by a ‘light’ brief, we are talking only the most basic of details, enough that you think you have the gist of the project but not some of the KEY specifics that could make or break a project.

How do you define scope?

The scope is simply all the work that needs to be done in order to achieve a project's objectives. In other words, the scope involves the process of identifying and documenting specific project goals, outcomes, milestones, tasks, costs, and timeline dates specific to the project objectives (Grey Campus).

Understanding the scope or extent of a project allows us as designers to understand what is needed of us and plan out accordingly the project and requirements. If we have all the facts, the project is ensured to be more streamlined, on time and on budget.

If something is "not in scope," it is not factored in the planning work of the project. Activities that fall within the boundaries of the scope statement are considered “in scope” and are accounted for in the schedule and budget. If an activity falls outside the boundaries, it is considered “out of scope” and is not planned for. ​(The Balance Careers)

Right, story time! You are here for a story right, you want to hear where I went totally wrong (don’t worry, I love when people tell these stories too hehe). Well, the project actually turned out pretty fabulous in the end visually (BOOORING) and the client was amazing, but what I learnt from the initial mistake is something I want to share and try to help any new designers not have to go through as it was a costly mistake on my end. What happened was that I was approached to create eco-friendly packaging for a company, and all I asked was what needs designing (literally, that was about the range of my question I think) and possibly asked what the size was. What I DIDN’T ask and what ended up costing me HOURS of unscoped or charged time, was key details such as how many variations are we talking about for each packaging item, how many different sizes are needed, are you going to need both a box to hold it and the label/sticker etc, and were barcodes needed for them (yes, yes they were). Long story short, we got there in the end with some beautiful packaging but I spent literally hours on many many different designs, variations, colours, shapes and sizes as well as adding individual barcodes to over 100 different products. I well and truly underestimated and under quoted the time, range and complexity and at the end I wasn’t even mad – because I knew that was on me and my scoping process at the time.

One of my second biggest mistakes when scoping was asking the right questions that apply to the actual person or team I might be working with, and this one I still struggle with to this day. Ever have the most beautiful dream client come to you – a brilliant project, a remarkable person to work with, and you sort of just assume it will be great because they are your ideal match (on paper)? And then it’s not until after you’ve begun the red flags begin to pop up that you should have asked about before. I’m talking about clients who aren’t 100% committed to their project, are terrible with their own time management, are prone to temper tantrums or like to fade away like ghosts (no emails, communication or payment). Sucks right, and yeah, I’ve had that too. And it could be avoided by just having a clear conversation to begin with (not that you’d expect anyone to do those things if investing in a project, but it happens and it’s an all to real occurrence unfortunately).

So! Moral of the story and reason for this post – I’ve now mostly learnt from my mistakes (or I learn more each time I work on a new project), what some of the key questions to ask before beginning a project to ensure you are both on the same page and everything is set out clearly.

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Here are my go-to questions I begin with to start the scoping process

+ Website-specific Questions:

• Who is the intended target audience for this design
• How many pages will your site need (and what are these pages)
• Do you have a current site (please include URL)
• What platform are you familiar with?
• Would you be open to learning/using Squarespace (the website builder I exclusively design on)
• Do you have your copy ready to go or does this still need to be written. If so, will you be writing it or are you working with a professional photographer
• Do you have your imagery ready to go or does this still need to be taken. If so, will you be writing it or are you working with a professional photographer
• Does your site require any ecommerce functionality (a shop or products)
• Have you got your email campaigns/newsletters all set up and ready to go
• Any other special requirements or features you can think of
• Do you have a deadline for website launch
• Will you be able to commit to the project fully, prioritise website-related work, communicate clearly and in a timely manner and have time to put into ensuring we meet your deadline?

+ Print-specific questions:

• Who is the intended target audience for this design
• Please list the number of print items to be designed (and what are they)*
• Are final PDF files sufficient or do you also need the editable Indesign templates
• Will this be purely print, or for web use too
• What are the dimensions/size of each item and how many pages per design (i.e Brochure - 8 x A4 pages, Pricing Sheet - 1 x A4 page)
• Do you require any specialty printing that will need to be set up in the document (i.e foiling or embossing)
• Do you have a printer company in mind or do you still need to sort this part of the process
• Do you have a deadline for these print items

*If someone has approached you with a brief such as ‘I need stationery’ but hasn’t elaborated further

+ Packaging-specific questions:

• Who is the intended target audience for this design
• Will you be providing the product dieline or will this need to be created
• How many different package designs need to be created and how many variations of each (i.e 1 x box design - 3 x ingredient variations, 3 x stick labels )
• Would your products require any barcodes added (which you'd need to generate and provide)
• Are you writing the packaging copy or working with a copywriter (and are you/they handling all the legal stuff like what's required on packaging, use by dates, ingredients, warning label etc)
• Will any of your packaging require specialty printing which will need to be set up in the document (i.e die cuts, metallic foil, embossing etc)
• Do you have a printer company in mind or do you still need to sort this part of the process
• Do you have a deadline for these packaging items

+ Branding-specific questions:

• Do you have a clear idea of your target audience in mind or do you still need to research this
• Have you confirmed your business name (and tagline/additional text to go on logo if applicable)
• Do you have a clear idea of your competitors
• Have you established your business’s mission statement/can elevator pitch me on what your business is/does (so I can have a clear idea of what you do)
• Do you have a deadline that your branding needs to be completed by

+ General questions (also scoping for possible red flags):

• Who is the intended target audience for this design
• What will your availability be like during our time together - do you have any holidays or events coming up that may impact the project and your role
• Will you be able to commit to the project fully, prioritise project-related work, communicate clearly and in a timely manner and have time to put into ensuring we meet your deadline?
• Are you ready to begin your project and have all the details ready to go to start the design process (or are there still some more details that need to be sorted before we could begin)
• Are you willing to work collaboratively and give me creative feedom according to your vision (or do you self-identify as ‘picky’ or a perfectionist and need every design detail to be exactly the way you think it should be)
• Who else needs to be involved? (i.e. I will be taking on the designer role, so if you need xxx to be done, you may need to start that process before we can work on xxx)
• Are there any prerequisites or absolute requirements for this project? (think of these as must-haves vs nice to haves)
• Do you have a deadline for your project

These are my very basic warming up questions to begin the scoping process and make sure I am on the same page as the client with what is needed. Every project is different though and all our processes (and services) are different so some of these might be redundant, but hopefully a few of them may be helpful to add into your scoping process :)

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