Client questionnaire to design brief in 30 seconds (AI workflow)

I think designers are getting far too hung up on the AI “magic tricks” they see being shared on Instagram (to get the creator views and money!!) and not enough time looking at all the boring repetitive work AI can be doing for them right now. 

Take client onboarding as an example. Currently your process might look something like this:

• You send a detailed questionnaire covering everything from lifestyle and budget to specific appliances, finishes, furniture and functionality
• Your client spends ages answering all those questions and sends back
• you end up with pages and pages of really useful information
• you’ve then got to do something with that information so you either spend time transferring all of this into a working design brief or have to keep going back through the original questionnaire constantly to check something or look for the details you need. 

This is exactly the sort of repetitive work I think designers should be handing over to AI right now.

So this week I've upgraded my Client Onboarding Questionnaire template and created a complete workflow showing you how to use AI for this part of your onboarding process.

There are three parts to it.

First, I’ve upgraded the existing template itself

I've expanded the original questionnaire to 20 pages and added more specific questions so your clients are prompted to think properly about what they need in each space.

You don’t need to send all 20 pages to every client. The idea is that you have a comprehensive master template and can duplicate or delete pages as needed (depending on the scope of the project you’re working on).

Second, I wanted to make the questionnaire easier for your clients to complete and send back to you. 

For this you take the questionnaire template and use a simple prompt I've got for you to turn it into a fillable PDF.

Your clients can then type their answers straight into the document, tick the checkboxes, save it and email it back to you. There’s no printing, scanning or messing around with documents they can't edit.

This is already a massive client experience improvement and will save them a lot of time (which they will love you for!).

Third, I wanted to make the responses they give you more useful for you to use. 

So I’ve developed an AI workflow for that as well. Once your client returns their completed questionnaire, you upload it to ChatGPT or Claude and give it the prompt I've got for you.

AI then organises the responses into a concise design brief covering the project requirements, design preferences, specific selections for each room and any questions that need to be clarified at your client kick-off meeting.

The way I've developed the AI prompts is important because if your client has specifically requested Gaggenau ovens, Liebherr fridge and two Miele dishwashers, you don't want AI reducing that to "premium kitchen appliances". You've asked those detailed questions for a reason so you need to make sure the important information survives the summarisation process.

I've tested this workflow using a fictional $1.5 million renovation of a five-bedroom house, with plenty of specific client requirements. The completed questionnaire and resulting design brief are also included with the new workflow so you can see how it all works.

I've recorded a short Reel walking through this process so you can see what I'm talking about.

If you'd like to try the process yourself, the complete workflow is included with my Client Onboarding Questionnaire.

You'll get the 20 page customisable template, video trainings, prompts, editable design brief, completed examples and an AI skill pack. You can find out more here 👇🏻

PS: If you've already purchased this questionnaire, all these upgrades are FREE and everything was added to your course portal this week. To access the upgrade just log in and you’ll see the new resources there straight away for you :)

LOGIN TO YOUR STUDENT PORTAL HERE