I usually start by working on the critical messaging that the website (or particular page) needs to communicate. It is surprising how often clients and stakeholders cannot articulate the most basic information they need to communicate. Information such as:
What the organisation does.
How that benefits the user.
How it delivers on those benefits.
Instead, they want to put everything online and let the user work it out!
To address these fundamentals, I set aside the website itself for a moment and ask the stakeholders in attendance to design a book jacket.
The reason I choose a book jacket is that it has physical constraints that limit the amount of content and forces the group to prioritise.
Asking people to design a book jacket for their organisation helps them focus on what their value proposition.
They have to consider what goes on the front, back, spine and inside flap of the book jacket, with different regions having different prominence.
For example, the spine is about grabbing the users attention, while the cover is the main message that needs communicating and so on.
This exercise will force the group to articulate their value proposition in a prioritised, clear, manner.