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"Can you just add a blog?"

It starts innocent enough. Client wants a marketing site. Figma mockups look clean. You quote 4 weeks.

Week 1: "Oh, we also need a blog." Fine, you add a CMS.

Week 2: "The blog needs categories, tags, search, and author profiles." Okay, so it's a content platform now.

Week 3: "Can each author have their own dashboard with analytics?" You stare at the ceiling.

Week 4: You're rebuilding WordPress with extra steps. The original quote is a joke. The client doesn't understand why it's taking so long.

The problem wasn't the client. The problem was that nobody asked the right questions in week 0.

What week 0 should look like

Same client, same "just add a blog" request. Different outcome.

app.projan.ai

New client project. Marketing site plus a blog. They said it's straightforward. 5-6 pages, a blog, contact form. Figma is done. I'm thinking 4 weeks.

Let's pressure-test 'straightforward.' When they say blog, do they mean static posts they write themselves, or do they want multiple authors, categories, search? And who's going to be publishing content - the client directly, or do they have a content team?

Good question. Let me check... okay they said 'a few team members will post.' So multiple authors.

Multiple authors means you need: auth/roles, an authoring interface (or CMS training), draft/publish workflows, and probably author profile pages. That's not a blog addon, that's a content management system. Are you planning to use a headless CMS or build custom?

I was going to use markdown files in the repo but that won't work for non-technical authors, will it?

Not unless you want to be their personal publisher forever. A headless CMS like Sanity or Contentful would handle multi-author, drafts, and previews. But that adds integration time. Here's what I'd recommend: scope the blog as a separate phase. Phase 1: marketing site with a placeholder blog page. Phase 2: CMS integration. Quote them separately.

Your Plan Phase 1 (3 weeks): Marketing site, 6 pages, contact form, placeholder blog. Phase 2 (2 weeks): Headless CMS integration, multi-author support, draft workflow. Separate quotes protect you from scope creep. Client gets the site fast, blog done right.

The difference between a good project and a nightmare

Scope by vibes

✕"Should be about 4 weeks"
✕Requirements discovered mid-sprint
✕Client adds features, timeline stays the same
✕No written scope to point back to
✕You eat the extra hours because there's no contract basis

With Projan

Scope with Projan

✓Requirements challenged and documented before quoting
✓Hidden complexity surfaced in the planning conversation
✓Phased delivery with separate quotes for each phase
✓Written plan you can share with the client as the spec
✓Scope creep caught with "that's a Phase 2 item"

30 minutes of planning saves 30 hours of rework

Built for how devs actually work

Not a project management tool. Not a ticket system. A thinking tool that happens to output useful stuff.

Talk, don't type templates

Describe the project in plain English

Projan asks the technical questions you forgot

Conversation, not form-filling

Docs that don't suck

Technical scope document generated automatically

Share with clients as the project spec

Update it when scope changes (because it will)

Tasks you can actually use

Broken down into dev-sized chunks

Export to Jira, ClickUp, Monday.com, Notion

Or just use Google Docs if that's your thing

Also useful for

Estimating projects before quoting - surface the hidden complexity first

Aligning with a co-developer or small team before starting a sprint

Planning your own side project so you don't abandon it at 40% like the last three

Quick planning sessions in Slack when an idea hits you mid-workday

Coming soon: MS Teams, Linear export, voice input.

Next time a client says "just add a blog,"
you'll know exactly what to ask.

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