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Design project checklist

Brand, UI or web design with no build attached. 87 items across 7 stages, 24 of them needed from the client.

For: Design lead and PM

01Before we start

Signed proposal or contractKeyFrom client
Countersigned, not "verbally agreed". Work started on a promise is work that may not be paid for.
Deposit or first invoice paidKeyFrom client
The payment condition in the contract, met. This is the line the sales SOP will not let a project pass.
Decision-maker confirmed by nameKeyFrom client
Who signs things off, and who can say no. A project approved by a committee is a project approved by nobody.
Day-to-day contact named, and their working hoursFrom client
Including timezone. Half of "they are slow to respond" is a five-hour offset nobody wrote down.
Billing contact and PO or reference number, if they need oneFrom client
Ask now. An invoice rejected in month three for a missing PO number delays payment by a month.
Sales-to-delivery handoff completedKeySales
Call notes, proposal versions, commitments, risks and stakeholders - everything promised during the sale, in writing, where delivery can read it.
Scope, exclusions and assumptions restated in our own wordsPM
Written by the people delivering it, not copied from the proposal. Rewriting it is how you find what the proposal left ambiguous.
Project workspace, folders and client portal set upPM
Client invited and confirmed able to sign in - not "invitation sent".
Team assigned with named owners per disciplinePM
One name per discipline. "The design team" is not an owner.
Commercials checked against capacity before any date is promisedPM
The PM SOP puts this before assignment on purpose: a timeline agreed without checking the calendar is a timeline that will be missed.
NDA or data-handling requirements identifiedPM
If they handle health, financial or children’s data, that changes where things may be stored - and it is cheaper to know now.

02Kick-off

Review turnaround agreed in working daysKeyFrom client
How long feedback takes. Every date in the plan is built on this number, so it is agreed rather than assumed.
Feedback consolidated through one personFrom client
Contradictory feedback from three stakeholders is the single most common cause of rework.
Client team introduced, including anyone who can vetoFrom client
The person who appears in week eight to reject everything was always going to appear. Better in week one.
Holidays, launches and blackout dates on both sidesFrom client
Their trade show and our public holidays, on the plan before it is signed off.
Kick-off call held with the decision-maker presentKeyPM
Whole delivery team plus whoever signs off. A kick-off without the decision-maker has to be repeated.
Milestones and delivery dates agreed in writingKeyPM
With internal review dates set before each client-facing date, never on the same day.
Kick-off notes circulated with decisions, owners and next actionsPM
Within 24 hours, while people still agree on what was said.
Communication channel and update cadence agreedPM
Where we talk, how often we report, and what counts as urgent. Written down, so "I messaged you on WhatsApp" is not a delivery method.
Escalation path agreed both waysPM
Who to call when something is going wrong, on their side and on ours, before it is going wrong.
Change-request process explained and acceptedPM
How a new request gets costed and scheduled. Explaining it at the kick-off is a conversation; explaining it in week seven is a confrontation.
Risks and dependencies logged with ownersPM
The PM SOP asks for risks raised early with a proposed solution, not only the problem.

03Discovery

Brand assetsKeyFrom client
Logo in vector, fonts with their licences, colour values, existing guidelines. "We will send the logo" usually means a PNG off the website.
Copy supplied, or a decision that we write itKeyFrom client
The single most common cause of a stalled design project. Designing around copy that has not been written means designing twice.
Business goal for this project, in a numberFrom client
More leads, fewer support tickets, faster checkout. Without a number, "did it work" is a matter of opinion.
Who the audience is, and what we want them to doFrom client
Competitors you actually lose toFrom client
Not the biggest names in the category - the ones that come up in your deals.
What must not changeFrom client
The thing their customers recognise, or the integration that cannot break. Cheaper to hear now than to rebuild later.
Examples of work you like - and work you do notFrom client
Three of each is plenty. The dislikes are more useful than the likes, and faster to act on.
Photography and video supplied, or approval to licence stockFrom client
Sitemap or screen list signed offFrom client
The thing that turns "a website" into a countable amount of work.
Requirements written down and confirmed back to the clientKeyPM
In their words and ours. The confirmation is the point: it is where a misunderstanding surfaces while it is still free.
Accessibility target set before design startsKeyDesign
WCAG 2.2 AA is the default expectation for commercial work now. Contrast and text sizing are cheap to design in and expensive to retrofit.
Existing material reviewed before asking for morePM
Their analytics, support tickets and sales objections are research that is already written down and already paid for.
Dependencies mapped between content, design, build and approvalsPM
Which piece cannot start until which other piece finishes, and who is holding each one.
Missing information listed and requested as one batchPM
One clear request beats eleven emails over three weeks, and gives the client something they can actually work through.
Task breakdown created with owners, reviewers and internal deadlinesPM
Design review rounds agreed, and what happens after themDesign
How many are included, and what an extra round costs. Agreed now, not during round four.

04Build

Art direction or moodboard shared and agreedDesign
Agreeing direction before pixels is what stops round two being a restart.
Wireframes for the key templatesDesign
Structure agreed while it is still cheap to move.
Design system started: type scale, spacing, colour and componentsDesign
Built as styles and variables, not hand-typed values - which is how a design system quietly stops being one.
Every screen designed at mobile as well as desktopDesign
Designed, not "it will reflow". Reflowing is a decision somebody makes; if it is not the designer, it is the developer, at 6pm.
Interaction states designed: hover, focus, active, disabled, loadingDesign
Focus especially. It is the state that keyboard users live in and the one that is skipped most.
Empty, error and success states designedDesign
The three states every design skips and every user eventually meets.
Forms designed with labels, validation, error wording and long-value behaviourDesign
Including what a field looks like with a 60-character value in it.
Content extremes testedDesign
The longest product name, the shortest bio, eleven nav items. Designs break at the edges, never in the middle.

05Internal review

Internal review complete before anything reaches the clientKeyPM
The PM SOP is blunt about this: no drafts, no unreviewed work, no outdated versions sent to a client.
Developer handover walkthrough heldKeyDesign
Walk the build team through the deliverables, show where assets live, and answer questions in the room rather than over three days of messages.
Reviewed against the scope, not just against "does it work"PM
Every requested item, every feedback point, every agreed state present.
No placeholders, lorem ipsum, or test content left anywherePM
Version and file naming correct, and the client is getting the right onePM
Sending v3 when v4 exists costs a review cycle and some credibility.
Colour contrast measured, not eyeballedDesign
4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and interface elements.
Spacing, alignment and type scale consistent across every screenDesign
The QA SOP calls this out for a reason: it is what separates finished work from nearly finished work.
Only design-system styles used - no manually entered colours or one-off sizesDesign
A hand-typed hex is how a design system starts drifting, one screen at a time.
File organised and named for someone who did not build itDesign
Pages, layers and components named. Handing over a file only its author can navigate is not handing it over.
Design decisions annotated where the reason is not visibleDesign
The annotation answers the developer question you would otherwise answer in a call.

06Client review and sign-off

Written sign-off recordedKeyFrom client
In the portal or in writing. Per the MSA a portal approval is binding, which is exactly why it is worth having.
Feedback collected in one placeFrom client
One thread, one document. Feedback spread across email, calls and messages is feedback that will be missed.
Walkthrough delivered rather than a link dropped in a chatPM
Ten minutes of context turns "I do not like it" into specific, actionable feedback.
Every feedback point converted into a tracked item and closedPM
Tracked by version, so "we told you about that" has an answer either way.
Anything out of scope identified, costed and agreed - not absorbed silentlyPM
Quietly absorbing scope teaches a client that scope is free, and the next request will be bigger.

07Handover and close

Someone named as the owner on their sideKeyFrom client
A handover to a company is a handover to nobody. It needs a person with a name.
Final sign-off recordedKeyFrom client
Access confirmed working from their sideFrom client
Tested with them on the call - not "we have sent the details".
Testimonial or case-study permission, in writing, if they are happyFrom client
Ask at the moment they are happiest. Written permission, because the sales SOP does not allow publishing client work without it.
All credentials transferred to the client’s own accountsKeyDev
Nothing important should remain only in our name. This is the item that decides whether they are a client or a captive.
Domain, hosting and DNS ownership confirmed as theirsKeyDev
Billing for any service in our name transferred or cancelledKeyPM
Hosting, plugins, licences, mail. So nothing stops working the day our card expires.
Outstanding items and known issues written down honestlyKeyPM
Everything unfinished, deferred or broken. A handover that hides a known issue is found out, and it is found out by the client.
Repository access transferred or grantedDev
Analytics, Search Console and ad account ownership moved to the clientMarketing
Our access removed or reduced, and the client told what we keptPM
If we keep a login for support, say so in writing rather than leaving it quietly in place.
Documentation written for whoever maintains it nextPM
Written for a person who was not here, which is the only audience that matters.
Training session delivered and recordedPM
The recording is the deliverable. The person trained will leave.
Final files, source files and meeting records stored in the client folderPM
Final invoice raisedPM
Project archived here, with files and notes kept in the vaultPM
Archived, never purged - the knowledge is what makes the next project with them cheap.
Internal retrospective: what to do differently next timePM
Fifteen minutes. The PM SOP asks for one practical process improvement, not a document.
Final designs for every agreed screen, desktop and mobileDeliverableDesign
Source files handed over, organised and namedDeliverableDesign
Figma access or the working files. Access that expires is not a handover.
Component library or design system documentedDeliverableDesign
Assets exported in the formats needed, at the densities neededDeliverableDesign
Brand or usage guidelines, where in scopeDeliverableDesign
Handover pack with every credential and where it livesDeliverablePM
Maintenance or support arrangement agreed, or explicitly declinedDeliverablePM
Explicitly declined is a real outcome, and better than an assumption on either side.
Recording and notes from the training sessionDeliverablePM
Written summary of what was built and what was decidedDeliverablePM
The reasons, not just the result. It is what makes the next change cheap.

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