Answering my quick questions
When you first start, I ask you a few short questions while I work: who the business is for, why you are the right person to run it, and what would make you cringe on your own website. Your answers shape the first version of your site, so I wait for them before I start building it.
Anything you tell me would make you cringe stays off your site, including when I rebuild it or change its look later. For example, if you say you don't want prices on your site, I leave them off.
Where the answer buttons are
Each question arrives in chat with a few suggested answers right under it, inside the same message. The buttons stay with their question, even when more of my messages arrive after it.
Every button sends that answer straight away. If none of them fit, type your own answer in the message box.
When I've already researched who your customers are, the first suggested answer to "who is it for" is my research in a few words. Tapping it keeps my full description and makes it yours. Tapping a general answer like "Individuals" doesn't replace what I found. Any other answer, tapped or typed, replaces it.
Every question also has a Skip button next to its suggested answers. Tap it when you don't want to answer. I won't treat it as an answer, and your next message is an ordinary message. Once you skip, the question shows Skipped and its buttons go away. The one exception is the question about what your business does. I need that answer before I can go on, so it has no Skip button; answer it with a suggested reply or in your own words.
If I have more than one question waiting, only one set of buttons shows at a time. The other question says I will come back to it, and its buttons return when it is the one I need next.
The "Answering:" line
While my question is the last thing I've said, its buttons are right there under it — type in the message box or tap a button, either one answers it.
Once I've said more since then, a line above the message box says Answering: and names the question, with ↑ One question waiting next to it so you can jump back and see it. Whatever you send next is your answer to that question. You don't have to use a button — type it the way you'd say it.
If you want to say something else first, press the ✕ on that line. Your next message is then an ordinary message, and the buttons under my question still work.
After you answer
Once I have your answer, the buttons under that question go quiet. If you answered with a button, that one stays highlighted so you can see what you told me, and I reply with a short note of what I'll do with it. If you answered in your own words, the buttons disappear and I reply to anything else you asked in the same message.
I ask the next question only after I've replied to your last message, so my answer and my next question never cross.
If you don't answer within about ten minutes, I move on to the next question and don't ask that one again. You can still tell me later — just say it in chat.
Where to go from here
- When I ask you for details I can't work out myself — the other kind of question I ask.