Build Your Own Design Brief Before You Ever Book a Call
You don't need to walk into a website redesign not knowing what you want. Twenty minutes with the framework below, and you'll show up to any designer — us or otherwise — with a brief most people don't have until they're three calls deep into the process.
This exists for one reason: the clearer you are before we talk, the less time gets spent dragging your positioning out of you in a meeting, and the more of the budget goes into the actual build. That's the whole trade.
One honest note before you start: AI is a genuinely good thinking partner for this. It is not a substitute for someone who's actually built inside this niche and knows what a therapist's site needs to do that a generic business site doesn't. Use the prompts below to organize your own thinking — not to skip the part where a human who's done this looks at what you've built.
Four Prompts. Copy, Paste, Answer Honestly.
Step 1 — Positioning
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude:
"I'm a licensed therapist building a new website. Ask me one question at a time about: my specialty, my ideal client (be specific — not "people with anxiety," but who exactly, what their internal experience feels like), and how I want to sound to a stranger reading my site at night. Don't move to the next question until I've answered the current one fully."
Step 2 — Compliance-Safe Content
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude:
"Given my specialty [paste from Step 1], help me draft 2-3 fictional composite client scenarios I could use on my site instead of testimonials — clearly labeled as fictional, no identifying details, but specific enough that the right person recognizes themselves. Also draft a short non-diagnostic self-assessment, 4-6 questions, relevant to my specialty."
Step 3 — Practical Requirements
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude:
"List every practical requirement my therapy website needs to function day-to-day: booking flow, whether I want telehealth vs. in-person distinction, what fields my contact form should and should not collect (I'm HIPAA-conscious — no clinical information in a web form), service area, and how a visitor should reach my practice management system if I have one."
Step 4 — Visual Direction
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude:
"Based on everything above, describe the mood and visual direction I want — not just colors and fonts, but the feeling: warm vs. clinical, minimal vs. rich. Name 2-3 real websites, any industry, whose feeling I want, and a sentence on why each one works for me."
Steps 1–4 Already Put You Ahead. This Finishes It.
Four more prompts — including the one that compiles everything into a single structured document you can hand straight to a designer — plus the full HIPAA-conscious website compliance checklist. The complete pack is on Gumroad.
Get the Full Brief ToolkitWhat Happens Next
Bring the finished brief to us, or to anyone. If you bring it here, it goes straight into the discovery phase — no starting from zero, faster turnaround, and a more accurate quote because we're not guessing at scope anymore.