Pre-Mortem the Redesign. How to Save $10k Before You Spend It
If you plan a website redesign, prepare the foundations first. Many redesigns fail quietly because the structure is not ready. A site looks polished but still underperforms when the message is unclear, calls to action are inconsistent, proof is hard to find, and success is not tracked.
A pre-mortem solves this. Before you pay for design, you test the logic, message, and outcomes. It is one hour of clarity that helps you avoid expensive rework. It protects your budget before you commit it.
Why redesigns underperform (and how to avoid it)
Many teams jump straight to layouts and colors. They skip hard questions. Who is this for? What change do you promise? What a qualified visitor should do next. How will you know the site worked? When the answers are fuzzy, the redesign becomes a fresh coat of paint on weak structure.
Treat a redesign like a conversion project. Not a design project. Four foundations should be set before any visual work begins. Message. Path to action. Proof. Measurement.
The four foundations (the difference between pretty and productive)
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 will not fix it.
Thought leadership stance: Don’t chase clever. Chase repeatable. If a customer can’t quote you, they cannot explain you inside their company.
Path to action: one obvious next step
A services site guides a buyer toward the next step. Pick a single primary action, such as Book a Call or Request an Audit. Keep this action consistent on every page. Build layouts that support it.
Thought leadership stance: A clear path drives momentum.
Proof: Put evidence where the click happens
Proof on a separate page gets ignored. Proof near the button influences behavior. Place a metric, short story, or one-line quote within a few lines of each primary call to action. This reduces hesitation at the moment of choice.
Thought leadership stance: Proximity beats volume. One relevant proof line next to the CTA outperforms a wall of logos elsewhere.
Measurement: outcomes, not vibes
Many redesigns stall because teams track page views and bounce rates. Track outcomes tied to your path to action instead. Guide requests. Contact submits. Scheduler views. Scheduler books. If these numbers do not move, the design did not work.
Thought leadership stance: A redesign without a measurement plan is brand theater.
Why the “Save $10K” Claim Is Realistic
Typical project ranges:
The average median cost for a website redesign is $10,000 for internal projects and $13,000 for external ones.
Small business redesigns typically range from $2,000 to $10,000.
More strategic or complex redesigns for SMBs (including CMS, UX, and content) may hit $8,000 to $20,000 or more.
Enterprise or highly customized builds can cost $20,000 to $75,000+, depending on features and integrations.
Cost of rework risk: When core decisions on message, calls to action, and structure come late, teams redo pages after launch. Rework absorbs hours across copy, design, and development. It also delays results. Even a small redesign change often costs thousands in billable time.
SEO & migration risk: Poor redesign planning harms search performance. Fixing broken redirects, URL issues, or missing content often requires $2,500 to $10,000 in technical SEO work. A pre-mortem helps you avoid these issues by reviewing content paths and top pages before design starts.
In short, if you prevent even a small percentage of rework or avoid a major mistake, you protect at least $10,000 in cost or missed revenue.
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 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 process takes an hour, but that hour can save months of misaligned design or expensive rework.
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 improve a functional system without hiding its flaws.
How to brief like a strategist (what your designer actually needs)
A strong brief is concise and clear.
Objective: the outcome you want (e.g., increase booked calls from key pages by X% in 60 days).
Audience & one-liner: the sentence the site must prove.
Offer path: Entry → Core → Expansion. Where does the page send a buyer next?
CTA rules: one primary label site-wide.
Proof placement: at least one outcome or quote near each 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: Focus on one primary actionTrap: Proof as a portfolio page.
Counter-move: Proof at the decision pointTrap: Launch, then hope.
Counter-move: Name outcome metrics in the brief and review them weekly.
The point of a pre-mortem
A pre-mortem helps identify potential issues early, preventing wasted effort and budget. It encourages necessary difficult conversations upfront, ensuring that design hours are based on solid insights rather than assumptions. When your message is consistent, your next steps are clear, evidence is available where needed, and results are measurable, a redesign becomes a strategic improvement rather than a risk. Conducting a pre-mortem before briefing anyone can save you money and produce a website that effectively converts.
→ Want help running a pre-mortem for your next redesign? Book a strategy call with Marketing Made
