04 / PROCESS

How to prepare a request for project calculations

Ivan TishchenkoOctober 16, 20262 min read

“How much does a website cost?” - a normal start to a conversation, but this is not enough for calculations. Two outwardly similar projects can differ greatly in logic, integrations and amount of preparation.

Project planning cards on desktop — Illustration for the article · created using AI

Describe the result, not just the format

Instead of “need a landing page,” tell us who will come to it and what they should do. For example: “We show three services, explain the stages of work and accept the request with a choice of a convenient method of communication.” Such a request immediately helps to evaluate the structure and logic of the form.

For the dashboard, indicate the data sources and decisions that need to be made. For a bot, the user path and administrator actions. The clearer the scenario, the fewer hidden assumptions there are in the estimate.

Separate what is required and what is desired

Make two lists: what you can’t start without and what you can add later. The first version may include a catalog and accepting applications, and a personal account and a complex system of discounts will be included in the next stage. This is not a rejection of the idea, but a way to make the volume manageable.

List integrations separately: CRM, payments, mail, Telegram, spreadsheets or internal services. It is not just the name of the system that is important, but the required action: create a deal, get the balance, update the status or send a notification.

Tell me it's ready

Do you have texts, photographs, corporate identity, domain and access to hosting? Do I need to migrate existing pages and keep their URLs? Who will approve the materials? These issues affect not only the cost, but also the sequence of work.

The references are useful with an explanation: one likes the navigation, the other likes the presentation of cases. A request to “do the same” without specifying the required qualities leaves too much room for different interpretations.

What should be in the response assessment

Expect not only a total amount, but also a description of the scope, assumptions, stages and what is not included in the work. For unknown integrations, a preliminary review may be required. A reasonable range at the start is more honest than an exact number without studying the problem.

Before sending the brief, check your contacts, indicate your preferred response channel and deadlines. If there is a strict budget constraint, it is better to name it right away: then you can discuss the appropriate scope of the first version, rather than reducing the finished solution at the last moment.

YOUR IDEA / NEXT STEP

Shall we discuss your project?

Tell me what you want to do. Let's analyze the problem and determine where to start.

Contact me

NEXT ARTICLEWhat to check before publishing a site ← All articles