Pre-Mortem the Redesign. How to Save $10k Before You Spend It
Most redesigns fail quietly. Not because the visuals are bad, but because the foundations were never set. You can ship a gorgeous site that still won’t book calls if the message is vague, the path to action is unclear, proof is buried, and nothing is measured. A pre-mortem prevents that. Before you brief anyone, you stress-test the foundations that make a redesign perform.
Why redesigns underperform (and how to avoid it)
The common pattern: teams jump to layouts and color palettes. They skip the hard questions: Who is this for? What change do we promise? What should a qualified visitor do next? How will we know it worked? When those answers are fuzzy, a redesign just rearranges the furniture.
The antidote: treat the redesign like a conversion project, not a design project. That means four foundations, message, path to action, proof, and measurement, are decided before pixels move.
The four foundations (the difference between pretty and productive)
1) Message: say one thing buyers can repeat
A homepage should pass the “one-sentence test”: who you help → the problem in their words → the outcome you enable → without an unwanted trade-off. If a buyer can’t repeat your value after ten seconds, design won’t save you.
Thought leadership stance: Don’t chase clever. Chase repeatable. If a customer can’t quote you, they can’t sell you internally.
2) Path to action: one obvious next step
A services site isn’t a brochure; it’s a guided conversation. Decide on the one primary action you want (usually Book a Discovery Call or Request the Audit) and make it consistent page-to-page. Every layout choice should reinforce that path.
Thought leadership stance: Navigation is not a strategy. A path is a strategy.
3) Proof where the click happens
Proof scattered on a separate page is theatrical; proof near the button is persuasive. Put a metric, mini-case, or one-line testimonial within a few lines of each primary CTA. It reduces hesitation at the moment of decision.
Thought leadership stance: Proximity beats volume. One relevant proof line next to the CTA outperforms a wall of logos elsewhere.
4) Measurement: outcomes, not vibes
Redesigns often drift when teams measure page views and bounce rates. Measure outcomes tied to your path to action: guide requests, contact submits, scheduler views, scheduler books. If those don’t move, the design didn’t work, no matter how it looks.
Thought leadership stance: A redesign without a measurement plan is brand theater.
The pre-mortem method (run this before you brief)
Think of this as a table read for your website, no comps, no wireframes. Just language, logic, and outcomes.
Read the message aloud to a real buyer. Can they restate it in one line? If not, fix the sentence before you touch design.
Walk the action path from the hero to the CTA. Is it the same action everywhere? Is it above the fold, after proof, and in the footer? If you wouldn’t click it, neither will they.
Place proof at the decision point. Take your best outcome or objection-buster and put it next to the button. If you can’t, you don’t have a proof problem; you have an outcome problem.
Decide what success is in 60 days. Name the outcome metrics you’ll watch (booked calls by page, qualified replies, submit rate). If you can’t name them now, you’ll rationalize later.
This takes an hour. It can save months.
Go / No-Go: a strategic decision, not a mood
No-Go: If your message is fuzzy and your path to action is inconsistent, don’t redesign. First, fix those foundations with copy and CTA placement.
Go-Light: If the message is clear but execution is leaky, do a conversion tune-up (hero rewrite, single CTA, proof placement, thank-you paths).
Go: If message, path, proof, and measurement are defined, brief a redesign with confidence—and insist the design preserves those decisions.
Principle: A redesign should amplify a working system, not disguise a broken one.
How to brief like a strategist (what your designer actually needs)
A strong brief isn’t long; it’s decisive.
Objective: the outcome you want (e.g., increase booked calls from key pages by X% in 60 days).
Audience & one-liner: the sentence the page must prove true.
Offer path: Entry → Core → Expansion (where does this page route a buyer?).
CTA rules: one primary label site-wide; secondaries demoted.
Proof placement: at least one outcome or quote within a few lines of the primary button.
Measurement: which outcomes you’ll track post-launch and when you’ll review.
Everything else, type, spacing, and color, serves these decisions.
A short vignette (what “good” looks like)
A 12-person services firm wanted a full refresh. Instead, we ran a pre-mortem. The message was condensed into a single sentence that buyers could easily repeat. The site adopted one primary CTA, repeated three times per page. Two outcome lines moved next to the button. Measurement focused on booked calls, not traffic.
Result: no full redesign. Two weeks of focused changes. Calls went up. A redesign, later smaller in scope, honored what was already working.
Common traps (and the counter-move)
Trap: Redesign to “modernize.”
Counter-move: Modernize message and path, then style.Trap: Many primary CTAs to “give options.”
Counter-move: One path for momentum; options belong on the call.Trap: Proof as a portfolio page.
Counter-move: Proof next to the decision.Trap: Launch, then hope.
Counter-move: Name outcome metrics in the brief and review them weekly.
The point of a pre-mortem
A pre-mortem does not slow you down; it saves resources. It encourages strategic decisions early, allowing design hours to accumulate instead of being wasted. When your message is repeatable, your path is singular, your proof is proximate, and your outcomes are measured, a redesign becomes an amplifier, not a gamble.
Pre-mortem your redesign before you brief. Decide like a strategist, then design like a pro.
