A performance budget is a design decision

Google publishes thresholds for Core Web Vitals. Largest Contentful Paint at 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint at 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift at 0.1. We treat those as design constraints from the start of a project.

The budget comes before the hero

A full-bleed video, four font files, and a tag manager with a dozen vendors will spend the budget before anyone reads the headline. We name the budget in the scope: how many font files, whether the hero is type or a picture, and which third parties are allowed on the first load.

Motion is part of the same decision. A canvas in the hero is fine when it is decorative, paused for people who ask for less motion, and not the thing the page is waiting on. The words have to be there without it.

A score is a lab run

A Lighthouse score is a lab run of a specific page. Add a required embed, a heavy photograph, or a chat tool and the number moves. We will tell you that before launch. We will not print a badge that says every page is a 100.