Lessons Learnt: 4 Mistakes We Made Early On (And How We Avoid Them Now)

By Neil Kilgallon on Thursday, 26 March 2026

All web agencies, no matter how good, will have a collection of early designs in their junk drawer, alongside other mistakes they have made - ID Studio is no different. You learn from these mistakes and become a better web design studio because of them. Having been in this business for over 30 years, we’ve learned a lot, and in this article, we will discuss 4 mistakes we made and how we ensure they don’t happen again.

‘By documenting our mistakes and the lessons learnt from past projects over a 30-year period, it has helped ensure every new project is a success.’
¹Neil Kilgallon, Technical Director.

Mistake 1: Saying Yes To Every Client Feature Request

Yes can be an extremely problematic word, and we learnt this the hard way. Early on, when trying to make a name in the web design industry and build our business, we made the mistake of saying ‘yes’ to nearly every client's request.

‘Although ‘yes’ is what the client wants to hear, it can also create a project without boundaries and keep extending the finish line.’
Michael Macnail, Creative Director.

Consequences of Saying Yes To Everything:

Project Scope: One of the first projects we undertook was for a landscape garden business; what was supposed to be six pages ended up being over twenty, with extras such as newsletter design and landing pages. ²This appears to be a common issue for many agencies, with about 40% reporting they exceeded their budget because of this problem.

Fix: We now create a comprehensive proposal (Scope of Work), covering all aspects of the project. Any additional requests go through our change request procedure, which needs to be approved by the client.

Profitability: It became apparent that additional changes beyond the agreed-upon brief quickly increased budget costs and eroded profitability. Early on, it became quite disheartening when, as a business, we had spent 8 weeks working on a project to not even cover costs.

Fix: Additional work is agreed through the change request procedure, and we then provide a set price or hourly rate for the extra work. This is completely transparent.

Late Nights: We understand that, as a new business, you need to work hard to establish yourself. We allocated time to each project; however, to maintain our reputation for meeting deadlines despite the extra work, we sacrificed our personal time.

As Neil Kilgallon, Director at ID Studio, recalls:
‘We often worked into the early hours to keep up with the extra work we had agreed to do. It wasn't sustainable, and it didn't serve the client’s best interests in the long run.’

Fix: All projects are managed by a dedicated project manager, with realistic timelines and schedules tied to set milestones.

Lost Work: Because we were working for free to meet deadlines, we had to turn down new work. At the time, we were just beginning to realise how these mistakes were holding us back from more lucrative work. There was a great opportunity to create a website for the financial sector; we wanted to break into that market, yet we knew we could not deliver.

Below are methods from our modern playbook that eliminate the ‘yes’ issue.

We developed comprehensive proposals covering every aspect of the project. This helps to set expectations and provides a document we can refer back to if new requests arise.
Extensive project planning with the client, including detailed Figma wireframes for all key sections and page types. If we catch scope creep in planning, it is easier to deal with.
We understand that some flexibility is necessary when developing a new website. However, we establish clear boundaries for what qualifies as extras.
Keeping clear communication with the client throughout the project helps set expectations.

Mistake 2: Aesthetics Over User Experience (UX)

We made this mistake with a client early on, using excessive animations, motion, and vector graphics to create a visually stunning website. This came at the cost of UX, as a website's success also depends on functionality and meeting visitors' needs.

Issues Caused By Aesthetic Obsession

We learnt very quickly that the user experience must come first. This doesn’t mean that our websites are boring, quite the opposite, we have won numerous 5-star awards, as well as accreditations from CSSDA, Awwwards, UX and Innovation Award. Focusing on aesthetics over UX can cause the following issues:

High bounce rate.
Missed conversions.
Poor brand perception.
Lack of user engagement.
Performance issues, such as slow page loading times.
Accessibility failure.

‘As the Creative Director, I naturally want every website to be a visual masterpiece. At the start, I was obsessed with creating a wow factor. We quickly learned that prioritising aesthetics over UX was a costly mistake for both clients and our reputation. Our motto for all projects now is - beauty must have purpose.'
Michael Macneil, Creative Director.

What We Now Prioritise

User Journey/Process: Our core focus is to define the primary website goals and create user journeys that support them.
Accessibility Rules: Accessibility features such as high-contrast ratios, navigation, and screen readers are planned from the start, not as an afterthought.
User Testing: Extensive user testing to ensure that user journeys and site functionality are clearly defined and intuitive.

Mistake 3: Unrealistic Timelines

‘In the beginning, the pressure to win a contract was immense. We would often agree to unrealistic deadlines just to secure the job, convinced that with some overtime we could complete the project on time. In our first year, we had built a great relationship with a local marketing company that put us forward to multiple clients. They had a tight deadline for a website, and we failed to deliver on time - they never used us again. This was a tough lesson to learnand a mistake we never want to repeat!’
Neil Kilgallon, Director.

How We Manage Timelines Now?

Being in the industry for as long as we have, we know how long a project will take to complete. I do not recall the last time a project went over schedule because of unrealistic timeframes. Below are some of the practices we employ to ensure timelines are met:

Thorough onboarding with the client and a clear understanding of who needs to provide what and when. We provide the client with a clear overview, outlining exactly what we need from them throughout the project's lifecycle.
We break down the project into logical stages (planning, wireframes, UI design, development, testing, etc). By requiring a formal sign-off at each milestone, we ensure the project moves forward on a solid foundation, preventing late-stage changes that delay projects.
We include a contingency buffer for all projects for unexpected issues.
Proactive communication is key - each project is assigned a project manager who oversees it from start to finish and serves as the bridge between the client and the production team.
Resource planning for team members, such as holidays.

Mistake 4: Cobbler’s Children Had No Shoes Syndrome

Initially, we dedicated all our time and resources solely to client projects, which is the right approach. We were designing modern, professional, high-performing, SEO-optimised websites for our clients, but this came at the expense of our own website. In theory, we weren’t practising what we preached, as our website began to age. We were winning awards for client sites, yet we were losing business due to our outdated design.

It was easy to justify putting our own brand last when we were busy with client work, but we eventually realised that our website was our most important asset. We were asking clients to trust our design skills while our website looked less than perfect.

As our website collected dust, the consequences became more obvious:

Increased bounce rate and declining website conversions.
It negatively affected our credibility when we didn't practice what we preached.
It caused internal frustration, especially from our design team, which wanted our website to look as modern as the client projects they were working on.
Insight articles were getting old and didn't reflect our cutting-edge philosophy.
Lack of site updates and static content was not good for SEO.

How We Overcame This Issue

We learnt that we needed to dedicate more time to our own website and treat ID Studio as our most important client! We started to practice what we preached and implemented the following:

Non-Negotiable Dedicated Time: We now schedule fixed blocks in our production calendars specifically for our own site. These slots are client-proof, meaning they cannot be bumped or rescheduled.
Structured Technical Schedules: We commit to major technical updates annually and functional refreshes every six months. This keeps our code lean and website secure.
Regular Insight Posts: Our aim is to publish a new insights article every week.
Site Monitoring: Regularly monitor our site to identify areas for improvement and explore integrating new technologies, such as AI or motion libraries.

Ready to build something the right way?

We aren’t afraid to share these mistakes because they are the foundation of the agency we are today. They have helped us to become strategically minded, security-conscious, and an extremely reliable digital partner. If you’re looking for a partner who prioritises your business goals, user journeys and functionality with amazing design, we would love to hear from you.

Sources/Information

1 - Neil Kilgallon is the founder and Director of ID Studio

2 - agencymanagementinstitute.com - scope-creep-killing-bottom-line-heres-prevent