How to Brief a Web Developer When Your Customer Is the Government

Author : GovCon Solutions | Published On : 04 Nov 2026

Many contractors hire a web developer the way they hire a caterer: they describe the occasion loosely and hope for the best. That works for a neighborhood shop. It works poorly when the audience is a contracting officer, a prime contractor's capture manager or an agency evaluator who will use your site to decide whether you look like a safe choice. A good brief fixes most problems before design starts. This guide covers what to put in that brief if you are shopping for web development for government contractors.

Start with who the site must convince

Write down the three or four people most likely to visit: a contracting officer checking that you exist and match a requirement, a prime looking for a teaming partner, a program manager comparing vendors, and a job seeker deciding whether to apply. For each one, list the question they arrive with. "Does this company do what we need?" and "Can I verify who they are?" shape a site very differently from "How do I buy a gadget?" Give the developer these questions in writing, because they decide which pages exist and what sits at the top of each.

List the facts the site must state

Government buyers work from checklists, so make the facts easy to find. A short list in the brief might include your legal name and address, the contract vehicles you hold, your NAICS codes, your registration details, the certifications that are current, and a downloadable capability statement. Mark each item as "confirmed" or "to be confirmed" before the developer builds anything. If a claim cannot be backed up, it should not go on the site. One wrong statement can undermine everything else a reader sees.

Treat accessibility and security as requirements

These two topics are often left as "nice to have" and then rushed at the end. Put them in the brief. For accessibility, ask the developer to build to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, to test with a keyboard and a screen reader, and to report the results. For security, ask about HTTPS, update practices for the platform and plugins, who has administrator access, how forms are handled and where the site is hosted. Also state plainly that no controlled or sensitive information about any contract will appear on a public page.

Decide how content will be managed

A site is only as good as its upkeep. Ask who will update pages, how changes get approved and how quickly a correction can go live. If your business development lead needs to edit a capability page without calling the developer, the platform has to allow that. Ask for a short training session and a simple guide as part of the project, not as an extra.

Define pages by the questions they answer

Instead of naming pages in the abstract, tie each to a question. A capabilities page answers "What can you do?" A past performance page answers "Have you done it before?" A company information page answers "Can I verify you?" A careers page answers "Is this a good place to work?" This approach keeps the structure lean and keeps marketing language from crowding out facts.

Agree on how you will judge the result

Finish the brief with acceptance criteria. Examples include passing an agreed accessibility check, loading acceptably on a mobile connection, having every required fact on the site, and having a tested contact form that reaches a monitored inbox. When both sides know what "done" means, there is less room for disputes later.

Keep the brief short

Two or three pages is enough. The goal is not to dictate design but to make sure the developer understands your buyers, your facts and your constraints. Contractors who write this down tend to get fewer revisions, a site that is easier to maintain and a clearer record of what was agreed.

About the author: CyberX Gov Solutions supports U.S. government contractors with proposal development, cleared recruitment and compliant web development.