---
title: "What a UX Agency Actually Does in Week One"
description: "The first week of a UX or website project, step by step: kickoff, access, evidence, the Redline, journeys and open questions, and what you should see."
category: "UX & Redesign"
question: "What does a UX agency do in the first week of a project?"
datePublished: 2026-10-17
dateModified: 2026-10-17
readingMinutes: 7
status: published
author: "UXPro Design Studio"
authorType: "Organization"
editorialProcess: "Prepared with AI assistance and checked against the listed sources."
authorUrl: https://uxpro.ca/about
canonical: https://uxpro.ca/blog/what-a-ux-agency-does-in-week-one
image: https://uxpro.ca/covers/what-a-ux-agency-does-in-week-one.webp
license: "Quote freely with a link to the canonical URL."
---

# What a UX Agency Actually Does in Week One

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Week one is for | Understanding the problem before anything is styled: people, evidence, constraints and open questions |
| You should see | A written list of the journeys that matter, a screen or page inventory, open questions and the review points |
| You should not see | Polished mockups of a finished design before anyone has asked about your customers |
| The Redline | Free. One page, your homepage, read at 390 px phone width. Up to ten numbered notes, sent as a PDF. |

**In week one, a good UX agency learns before it designs: a kickoff that names the decision and who approves it, access to your analytics and accounts, a review of the evidence you already have, short interviews with the people who talk to customers, and a written list of the journeys, pages and open questions. Polished mockups should not be the week's output.** UXPro is a design studio in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, for small businesses, practices and startups: websites, apps, brand, pitch decks, SEO and marketing.

This guide describes what that week looks like at a studio that works the way we do, so you can compare it with what any agency proposes. It names no turnaround, because the right pace depends on the project and your quote should state it.

## Why does week one matter so much?

> **Discovery:** the first stage of a design project, spent understanding the problem, the people who have it and the constraints around it before committing to a solution.

The [GOV.UK Service Manual](https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery/how-the-discovery-phase-works) puts the principle plainly: "Before you commit to building a service, you need to understand the problem that needs to be solved", and "You should not start building your service in discovery." It calls 4 to 8 weeks typical for a government service. A small business website or a single app flow needs far less, but the same order holds: learn, then design.

It is also when changes are cheapest: a misunderstanding caught in a conversation costs minutes; caught in finished screens, it costs a revision round.

## What happens at the kickoff?

The kickoff should leave everyone agreeing on four things, written down:

1. **The decision.** "Help more people book online" is a decision; "make it modern" is not. If the goal is vague, the agency should push until it is not.
2. **The approver.** One named person who can say yes. Projects stall when approval is shared by committee and nobody owns it.
3. **The review points.** When you will see work, in what form, and what kind of feedback helps at each stage.
4. **What done means.** The acceptance criteria. For our website builds, one of them is fixed in advance: we accept a build at Lighthouse 95 or higher on mobile. It is an acceptance target, not a published measurement.

## What evidence does the agency gather?

Before anyone forms an opinion, a good team reads what you already know. That usually means:

- **Analytics:** which pages people land on, where they leave, and what device they use
- **Support evidence:** the emails, calls and chat messages that repeat the same question
- **Search data:** the queries that bring people to the site, from Search Console
- **The accounts:** domain, hosting, analytics, Google Business Profile, and who owns each
- **The people closest to customers:** front desk, sales, support

Those people are stakeholders, and talking to them early pays off. Nielsen Norman Group's [guide to stakeholder interviews](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/stakeholder-interviews/) describes them as conversations with people who have a vested interest in a project, and notes that the sooner they happen, the more useful they tend to be.

On our [UX and UI design](/services/ux-ui-design) work we size research to the decision: we read your support tickets and analytics, watch five people use what exists, and interview whoever talks to your users daily. Five is not arbitrary. Nielsen Norman Group's [long-standing advice](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/) is that "the best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford."

## Where does the Redline fit into the first week?

On a website project, the Redline is where we start. It is free, and it is how every project starts. One page, your homepage, read at 390 px phone width. Up to ten numbered notes, sent as a PDF. Each note strikes a line, writes the replacement, and gives the reason beside it.

A typical note is small and specific. Our [Ontario Practice Website Index](/research/ontario-practice-website-index), a convenience sample of Ontario law, clinic and accounting homepages (edition 2, October 2026, n = 187), found tap-to-call on 136 of them, so 51 made a phone visitor copy the number by hand. A Redline note on a page like that reads: strike the plain-text number; replace it with a tappable link; reason: a visitor on a phone should be able to call with one tap. A few notes like this tell you more about how an agency thinks than a mood board does.

Product work starts the same way at a different scale: the core journeys walked end to end, including the error and empty states, before a single screen is redrawn. Our paid [UX audit](/blog/what-is-a-ux-audit) is the full version of that walk.

## What should you have in hand at the end of week one?

Not a design. A short set of written decisions you can disagree with:

| Output | What it contains | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Journey list | The three or four tasks that carry the site or product, including the paths where something goes wrong | Everything after this is designed around them |
| Page or screen inventory | What exists, what stays, what goes, with priorities | Scope becomes visible, and so do changes to it |
| Open questions | What nobody knows yet, and who will find out | Assumptions stop hiding inside designs |
| Evidence notes | What the analytics, support emails and interviews showed | You can check the reasoning later |
| Plan for the next stage | Wireframes first, with the review dates | No surprises about when you next see work |

If an agency's first week ends with three glossy homepage options and none of the above, ask what the options are based on.

## What should you do during week one?

Answer quickly, and say what you actually think. The Government of Canada's [Digital Standards](https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/government-canada-digital-standards.html) begin with "Design with users" and "Iterate and improve frequently"; neither works if the client is hard to reach. Concretely:

- Grant access to analytics, the site and its accounts on day one, in your name, not shared passwords
- Put the agency in touch with the person who answers the phone or the support inbox
- Send examples you like and dislike, with one line on why
- Flag any rules your sector carries: the [LSO marketing rules](/blog/lso-marketing-rules-website) for law firms, [PHIPA](/blog/phipa-clinic-website-forms) for clinics, and the [AODA website rule](/blog/aoda-website-compliance-ontario-businesses) for businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees in Ontario

If you have not written a brief yet, our [one-page brief template](/blog/how-to-brief-a-design-agency) covers what to send before the kickoff.

## FAQ

### Should a UX agency show designs in the first week?

Rough structure, yes, if it helps a conversation: a sketch or a grey-box wireframe. Polished screens, rarely. Styling before the journeys and content are agreed anchors everyone to a look before the problem is understood.

### What do I need to give an agency before week one?

Access to analytics, the site or product, and the accounts it runs on; any support emails or call notes; the people who talk to customers; and a named person who can approve decisions. A one-page brief covers the rest.

### How long is a discovery phase?

It depends on the decision. The GOV.UK Service Manual calls around 4 to 8 weeks typical for government services; a small business website needs far less, often a few working sessions inside the first week.

### What is a Redline?

Our name for the first thing we do on a website project: a person reads one page of your site at phone width and marks it up by hand, striking a line, writing the replacement and giving the reason beside it. The free version covers your homepage, with up to ten numbered notes sent as a PDF.

## Next step

[Request a free Redline](/redline) to see the first step for yourself, or read how we run [website design and build](/services/website-design-build) and [UX and UI design](/services/ux-ui-design). Project prices are on the [pricing page](/pricing). We meet in person in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, and in Guelph by arrangement; see [Kitchener-Waterloo](/locations/kitchener-waterloo).

*Reviewed for accuracy against the cited primary sources on 17 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.*

## Sources

- [How the discovery phase works](https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery/how-the-discovery-phase-works) (accessed 2026-10-17)
- [Stakeholder Interviews 101](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/stakeholder-interviews/) (accessed 2026-10-17)
- [Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/) (accessed 2026-10-17)
- [Government of Canada Digital Standards](https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/government-canada-digital-standards.html) (accessed 2026-10-17)