How to Brief an Overseas Web Developer So the Time Difference Doesn't Matter

With a big time difference, every question costs you a day. If I ask something on my Tuesday afternoon, you may only see it on your Tuesday morning, and the answer lands on my Wednesday. A good written brief removes most of those round trips.

I am a web developer in Aligarh, India, and work with clients in other time zones. This is the one-page brief I would want from any client, abroad or not.

The one-page brief#

Copy this, fill it in and send it.

1. Goal
   What should the site do for the business? (e.g. "get enquiry calls")
 
2. Audience
   Who visits it, and what do they want in the first ten seconds?
 
3. Pages or features
   List them. (Home, Services, About, Contact, Blog...)
 
4. Must-haves
   Anything non-negotiable: bookings, payments, a login, a language.
 
5. Examples
   Two or three sites you like, and one line on what you like about each.
   One you dislike, and why.
 
6. Content
   Who writes the text and supplies the images and logo?
 
7. Deadline
   A date, and what it is tied to (a launch, an event).
 
8. Budget
   A range. It helps me suggest what fits, not to spend all of it.
 
9. How we talk
   Your time zone, the best hour for a call, and your preferred channel.

Why each item matters#

Goal and audience decide everything else. A site built to get phone calls looks different from one built to sell products.

Examples are the fastest way to share taste. "Clean and modern" means different things to different people, and three links settle it.

Content is where most projects slip. If the copy is not ready, the site cannot be finished, and that is better known on day one than in week three.

Budget stops me proposing a $3,500 build when you have $700. I will tell you what fits, and what to leave for a second phase.

How we talk is the part overseas clients forget. Telling me your time zone and best hour means we agree one call window instead of guessing.

What happens after the brief#

This is how I run a project, and it is the same whatever your country:

1. Written scope and price. I send a scope, a price and a timeline in writing, so nothing depends on memory or a call you missed.
2. Milestones. You get preview links at each stage and review on your own schedule.
3. One call window. One short call per milestone, in the hour that suits you, is usually enough.
4. Handover. Source code, deployment and a walkthrough, so you are not tied to me afterwards.

The overnight gap actually helps here. Feedback you send at the end of your day is worked on while you sleep, and the update is waiting when you start. How much live time we share depends on your country, and I have worked it out in the working-hour overlap guide.

Where to send it#

Use the project form, which asks for most of this and gives an indicative estimate, or read what a project costs in US dollars first. If you are in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, the UAE or Singapore, there is a page with the overlap for your time zone.