A client once asked me, genuinely and without malice, why building a Squarespace website took three weeks when "it's all drag and drop, isn't it?"

My worst project happened because I skipped the discovery call.

I need to tell you something that might be uncomfortable. Your portfolio site, the one you spent three weeks designing, the one with the carefully curated project grid and the parallax hero and the...

I'm going to tell you about the document that changed how I run my design business. It's not a contract. It's not a style guide. It's a process document that outlines exactly how I work with clients from first conversation to final handoff.

You've built a website for your client. It launched three months ago. They're happy. You're happy. And now you're desperately hoping for a phone call because your next project isn't starting for six weeks and your pipeline is thin.