Web Development

Things Your Developer Wishes You Knew.

A short list of things that would make every project go smoother.

March 6, 2026

By Sherrie HablitzelFounder & CEO, Kahoots Creative Group

We love our clients. Truly. But there are a few things that come up on almost every project that would save everyone time, money, and frustration if we could just say them out loud. These aren’t complaints. They’re a field guide for getting the most out of your development team.

You just got off a call with your web team. They quoted two weeks for something you thought would take two hours. You’re wondering if they’re padding the estimate or if web development is actually that complicated. (Spoiler: it’s actually that complicated.) So here they are.

The Fun Parts

“Can you just...” is never just

“Can you just add a dropdown here?” “Can you just make it look like this other site?” “Can you just move this section?” Every “just” hides complexity. That dropdown needs to be designed, coded, tested across browsers, made accessible, and connected to your CMS. “Just” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.Here’s a good rule of thumb: if you’re about to say “can you just,” pause and ask instead: “how hard would it be to...” That framing invites your developer to give you a real answer instead of feeling like their expertise is being dismissed. Sometimes the answer really is “five minutes.” Sometimes it’s “two weeks and it’ll break three other things.” Both are useful information.

Content always takes longer than you think

The number one reason websites launch late isn’t development. It’s content. We’ve seen sites sit 90% done for months because nobody wrote the About page or picked the team photos. Start on your content the day the project kicks off. Not when the design is done.And “content” doesn’t just mean copy. It’s photos, team bios, case studies, testimonials, product descriptions, legal pages, and that PDF you want linked from the footer. Build a content checklist on day one and assign owners. The design and development team can’t build what doesn’t exist yet.

“Make it pop” isn’t feedback

Designers need specific input. “I want more contrast between the heading and the body text.” “This section doesn’t feel energetic enough.” “Can we try a brighter accent color?” These are useful. “Make it pop” or “I’ll know it when I see it” are how projects spiral into 14 rounds of revisions.Here’s a framework that helps: when giving feedback, try to identify the problem, not the solution. Say “this section feels too flat” instead of “make the button bigger.” The first lets the designer solve the right problem. The second prescribes a solution that might not address the actual issue.

Your logo isn’t that file

A JPEG of your logo saved from your website is not a logo file. We need the vector source file. EPS, AI, or SVG. If your branding company didn't give you one, they owe you one. If your cousin made the logo in PowerPoint, we need to have a different conversation.While we’re at it: gather all your brand assets before the project starts. Logo files in multiple formats, brand colors with hex codes, approved fonts, any brand guidelines. If you don’t have these organized, that’s a sign you might need brand strategy work before your web project.

Mobile is not an afterthought

More than half your visitors are on phones. If your feedback is “looks great on desktop, we’ll worry about mobile later,” we’re going to push back. Mobile-first design isn’t a preference. It’s math.And mobile isn’t just “the same site but smaller.” Touch targets need to be bigger. Navigation needs to collapse intelligently. Content hierarchy changes when you’re scrolling vertically on a 6-inch screen. If you’re reviewing designs, always look at the mobile version first. That’s what most of your customers see.

The number one reason websites launch late isn’t development. It’s content. Start on your content the day the project kicks off, not when the design is done.

The Things That Actually Speed Up Projects

A single decision-maker

Nothing kills a project faster than design-by-committee. When 6 stakeholders all have different opinions and nobody has final say, every decision takes three meetings. Designate one person with authority to approve.

Timely feedback

We send you a design for review. Two weeks pass. You come back with feedback, but we’ve moved on and need to context-switch back. Set expectations for feedback turnaround at the start. 48 hours is reasonable. Two weeks is a schedule-killer.

Consolidated feedback

Getting five separate emails from five people with contradictory feedback is a nightmare. Collect all feedback internally, resolve disagreements, and send one consolidated document. This alone can cut revision time in half.

Access to everything upfront

CMS logins, hosting credentials, domain registrar access, analytics accounts, brand files. We need all of these. The project where everything is ready on day one goes 2x faster than the one where we spend three weeks chasing a hosting password.

The Budget Conversation

Please tell us your budget. We know it feels uncomfortable. But when you say “just tell me what it costs” without a range, we’re guessing. We could build you a $5,000 site or a $50,000 site. Both might meet your needs differently.

Knowing your budget doesn’t mean we’ll spend all of it. It means we can design a solution that fits. We can tell you what’s achievable at your price point and what would require more. That’s a much more useful conversation than six rounds of proposals at the wrong number.

Before your project kicks off, gather these in one place: logo files in vector format (SVG, EPS, or AI), brand colors with hex codes, approved fonts, CMS logins, hosting credentials, and domain registrar access. Having everything ready on day one can cut your project timeline in half.

The Serious One

The project goes better when we’re partners, not vendors. Tell us the business context. Tell us why you need this feature, not just what you want built. When we understand the goal, we can often suggest a better solution than the one you had in mind. That’s what you’re paying for.

The best client-developer relationships we’ve had at Kahoots are the ones where the client trusts our expertise and we trust their knowledge of their business. That mutual respect turns a transaction into a collaboration. And collaborations produce better websites than transactions. Every single time.

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