Goals! Before you start anything decide – in writing – on the overall goals of your site and how you will measure success. If your team does not agree on this first step, the design process will be a mess and you will ultimately have no clear indicator of a successful project. Once that is completed you can plan for the remaining components: target audience, the level of personalization your technology supports, content plan, user experience, mobile and other channel availability, third party add-ons needed to support your site, and whose help you need to turn your strategy into reality.