It’s a bedrock of design – you create and adapt your approach based on your target audience and what you’re trying to say to them. But in an attempt to save time and money, it’s this thinking part that often slips; designers & agencies jump into the making — opening Figma, choosing typefaces, playing with colour palettes — rather than dwelling on the uncomfortable bit at the beginning. The thinking bit. The strategy bit.
It’s not just websites, it’s branding projects too – cut to the design phase before understanding what the brand actually stands for. The result is content that looks beautiful but says nothing. It’s design created and websites built before anyone’s figured out what problems they’re meant to solve.
So Why Is This?
Everyone wants to see progress. It’s tempting to just crack on with a new project. Everyone’s excited and eager to start. Clients can point at a design and say “I like this” or “change that.” But it’s harder to point to a strategy – strategy is abstract, whereas visual execution is tangible.
There’s also the uncomfortable truth that strategy work might reveal problems nobody wants to face. Maybe the target audience isn’t who you thought. Maybe the brand promise doesn’t hold up. Maybe the whole project needs rethinking. It’s easier to make something pretty and hope for the best.
The problem is by the time you’re trying to retrofit meaning onto a finished design, you’re constrained by decisions that were made without understanding what you’re actually trying to achieve. You’re choosing the outfit before knowing where you’re going.
What Actually Makes Work Effective
The projects that actually work (not just the ones that win awards) all start with uncomfortable questions:
Who is this actually for? Get specific about your audience. Who are they? How do they think? What do you need to communicate to them?
What are we really trying to achieve? Not “make it modern” or “refresh the brand” — what actual change do we want to create? What does success look like?
What’s the core message? If you had ten seconds to communicate one thing, what would it be?
Why should anyone care? The hardest question, but the only one that really matters.
The Invisible Problem
We’re terrible at solving problems we can’t see. An outdated logo is visible, so we redesign it. Unclear strategy is invisible, so we ignore it.
But unclear strategy is expensive. It means:
- Endless revisions because nobody knows what “right” looks like
- Beautiful work that doesn’t connect with anyone
- Projects that solve the wrong problems brilliantly
- Strategy problems only become visible after implementation — when they’re expensive to fix
Step One: The Plain English Test
Before diving into execution, try this: Write down what you’re trying to achieve in plain English. No jargon. No creative speak. Just simple words that explain the actual goal.
Instead of: “We’re creating a cutting-edge digital experience that leverages brand synergies to optimise user engagement across multiple touchpoints.”
Try: “We’re building a website that helps small business owners understand and buy our accounting software.”
Once you have your strategy clear, revisit everything through that lens. Does your copy speak directly to that small business owner? Does it address their actual concerns? Can you make it sharper, more focused? Every design decision should serve that core strategy.
Making It Actually Happen
For designers and agencies:
- Book a strategy session before any creative work begins
- Ask the uncomfortable questions early (they only get more uncomfortable later)
- Present strategy as a deliverable, not just a step you rush through
- Build in checkpoints where you test creative work against the strategy
For clients:
- Resist the urge to see “something visual” in the first meeting
- Be honest about what you don’t know about your audience or market
- Budget time and money for strategy — it’s not padding, it’s foundation
- Ask “why are we doing this?” before “what will it look like?”
The Speed Counter-Argument
“But we need to move fast!” Fair enough. Sometimes you do. But here’s the thing — unclear strategy doesn’t save time, it wastes it. Those endless revision cycles? That’s the time you “saved” by skipping strategy. Do the thinking upfront, even if it’s just two days instead of two weeks. Some strategy beats no strategy every time.
Final Thoughts
Great execution without clear strategy is just expensive decoration. But clear strategy with great execution? That’s when you create work that actually works.
Next time you’re starting a project, ask yourself: am I solving a real problem or just making something pretty?
Your project doesn’t need better aesthetics. It needs better thinking. Start there.
