Now, it’s true that there are hundreds of web dev freelance horror stories out there—from ghosting developers to missing deadlines entirely. In this article, we’ll be diving into the 10 best ways you can work well with your web design agency. Learn how to get the most out of your engagement with your web design and development partner so you can do and get the best work possible.

Before we start: this article is aimed at clients. We’ll be talking about the traits and behaviors agencies love to find in clients so that company owners like yourself can also be a pleasure to collaborate with.

Web design and development is a collaborative process that requires the cooperation of both developers and clients to be successful.

1. Collaboration > Outsourcing (Long-Term Partnerships)

Just like having a mechanic, electrician, or plumber—web development is a long-term game that requires maintenance. Even when your website is done and ready for launch, you shouldn’t be so quick to cut off your developers from your workflow forever. You may need them for upgrades, maintenance, or minor changes throughout your website.

Knowing this, you must treat your development team as a long-term investment. You aren’t just paying an agency for a one-time product. You’re investing in a relationship. This change in mindset is essential, primarily when proceeding to the following tips.

A long-term relationship with an agency can also result in lower costs and other benefits. Finally, one key reason why fostering your relationship with your developers is essential is that your web design agency knows your website from the ground up.

When you need future updates or bugs that need fixing, they’ll be able to come in, remember the code, layout, and functionalities, and then select the problem. Contrast this to hiring a new agency, and you’ll have to deal with project onboarding, giving them time to read and understand code they didn’t write, and even risk the possibility of messing up your website’s coding conventions.

2. Make Your Brand Clear

Web development and design are high-paying career choices with a work culture that highly appreciates and takes care of its employees. Keeping that in mind, most web design agencies are enthusiastic and happy to work. They’re paid a lot, sometimes work at home, and are probably pursuing their passions.

Utilizing this energy is an excellent method to make your web design team passionate about your project, and the best way to do that is by inspiring them with your brand. Remember, if you can barely communicate what your brand is all about, like why it’s unique or different, your design agency will have a more challenging time translating that into a terrific webpage.

If you can communicate your brand effectively and make your team just as inspired as you, you’ll create a snowball of momentum that will help kickstart your website’s progress.

Try using the what, how, and why method. Most employees know what their company is making, and several might understand how it works, but only a few know why their company exists. If you can clearly define why your brand deserves to be on the internet, then your development team can make decisions that benefit that vision.

3. A Website Company Is Better Than a Freelancer

WordPress has quickly become an easy and popular way to start websites on a budget. But if your website is serving a business and has the potential to pay dividends for years to come, it tends to be a good rule of thumb never to cut costs in those areas.

Hiring an agency with experience building websites for businesses like yours, as opposed to freelancers, makes the process much easier and less reliant on you coordinating everything that needs to happen while continuing to run your business.

4. Centralize Your System for Feedback and Updates

A centralized workspace is a must-have for tracking progress, introducing new tasks, and ensuring everything is on schedule. Atarim is an excellent solution for this.

Unlike other online workspaces, Atarim is designed for managing and delivering website projects. The app has dozens of unique WordPress and on-site-related features that are absolute time savers.

Users and clients also get a considerable boost when communicating changes since Atarim allows clients like yourself to comment directly on mock-up designs and send on-site feedback.

Everything in between your project should start and end in a workspace. Whether it’s the first few tasks for your developers or a dedicated column on the invoices you’ve been sending and paying your team, having everything on one site is an invaluable asset.

Not only does this make your life easier, but it also makes a world of difference for your developers and designers. They can easily do it from one site whenever they need to look at your instructions, make changes, or send you updates.

Say goodbye to scrolling through emails and messages in multiple workspace environments.

5. Be Punctual

Deadlines work both ways. If your design team has a question for you or needs your input, be punctual when replying to them.

Think of it this way. The design agency you’re working with is stuck and needs your decision to continue. They send messages asking for your advice and wait for your reply before they continue working. The longer you take to reply, the more out of the zone the designers will eventually be.

While that might sound simple, creatives need to work unhindered as much as possible. Most design teams have what’s called “focus modes,” which is a state wherein the designer loses track of time and everything else other than the tasks they have to do.

It’s like when you’re focusing on a game or a passion project, so much so that you lose track of time and other things around you.

Being punctual also means two things: that you’re respecting the time of your web design agency and that you’re excited to help out whenever you can.

Clients like this radiate inspiration for their own projects and become a confidence booster, knowing that the client is both ready to help and excited about the website’s progress.

6. Make Everything Official

Although the website project is for your company, it may also be helpful in the web design agency’s portfolio. Drafting a clear and official contract before you start might take a day or two of laborious, detailed work. However, it’s worth all the headaches it will save you in the future when you’re unsure about rights, budget calculations, payment terms, and so on.

This is also why working with a web design agency is a lifesaver since they’ll be in charge of drafting a contract for you. All you’ll have to do is read, confirm, and maybe ask for revisions if there are errors in the draft.

Here’s a simple outline of things to look out for when drafting a contract:

• Project objectives
• Clearly-defined deliverables (what? when?)
• Budget calculations
• Terms of payment
• Right of ownership to content
• Cancellation agreement

It’s always a great idea to be upfront about what you’re paying for, what you’re getting, and how you expect the entire process to go. Clearly defining what each milestone means is not just for your benefit but also the ease of mind of your development team.

7. Be Patient Yet Firm

It’s almost impossible not to have any revisions or changes when developing a website or another design project. It’s inevitable for you to either second guess your original ideas or to find new concepts that would provide more value to your website.

There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind and asking your design agency for changes, but you have to be reasonable and patient when setting deadlines.

If you ask for any revisions, be ready to extend the deadline if necessary. Don’t be that client who changes his mind and wants something different yet expects everything to be delivered on the same, original schedule.

Clients like those are a nightmare to work with, especially when they have no idea how difficult their changes can be.

On the contrary, you should also be firm once deadlines are agreed to. Follow up on the progress of deliverables two days or weeks before they’re due so that you can remind the design agency that you’re both excited about the results and that you’re waiting for them to finish.

As we mentioned above, it’s essential to show that you care about the project, and keeping a note of deadlines is a great way to do that.

8. Ask and Encourage Questions

Everyone, including yourself, is going to thank you for asking as many questions as you needed to. Although competent web design agencies will vet you through a precise process, helping them understand what you want in your website will never be perfect.

As a general rule of thumb, clarifying legal terms and creative decisions is always a good idea before starting out on anything. Explaining everything with your design agency, even the smallest details, will save you time, money, and possible conflicts.

Asking questions also shows that you care about the work and the designers behind your website. Simply asking your design agency for suggestions or opinions will make them understand that you’re open to criticism.

Considering that design agencies have worked on hundreds of websites, it’s not a bad idea to implore all that experience into your website. This eighth tip falls in line with the next, so keep reading.

9. Keep a Record of Any Major Changes or Clarifications

Taking a screenshot of your conversation for proof isn’t always bad. Generally, whenever you have any critical changes or clarifications, it’s a good idea to screenshot that conversation and keep a record of it somewhere.

A great place to store this would be in a workspace like Atarim, where you can easily track and list out changes. It’s essential to make these records readily available for your development team so that they can refer to them in case they need to review the changes.

Another use for this would be a record of frequently asked questions (FAQs). Doing this will show that you’re at least trying to organize and make the lives of your design agency easier, a kind gesture that doesn’t go unrewarded in this field of work.

Most importantly, keeping a record like this will help you avoid saying, “I thought you said,” or, “I don’t remember you saying this.”

10. Select an Agency That Will Support You After Launch

Finally, for the last tip, we go back to the beginning. Before you start, ensure that you find an agency that will set you up for long-term success.

Competent web design agencies will offer you long-term maintenance and free support even after you’ve worked with them. As long as working with you was a positive experience, you can best believe that some agencies will go above and beyond for clients like yourself.

WebDevStudios is a stickler for taking care of clients, even after launching their website. Whether it’s bug-fixing, plug-in updates, or optimizing your website’s performance, you can benefit from many post-launch features with the right agency.

You won’t have to sit there Googling for help by yourself and scrolling through StackOverflow answers from eight years ago.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a web design agency do?

Web design agency provides clients with web design services such as brand design development, color schemes, creation of visuals for marketing and content purposes, UX/UI, and other design-related aspects.

In general, web design agencies can help you improve user experience and help you define your brand identity in your industry.

What’s the difference between a web design agency and a freelancer?

A web design agency is a service that involves a complete package, more than just launching a website. On the other hand, a freelancer is somewhat limited in their abilities to provide a consistent level of ongoing support that is more indicative of what you’d expect from an agency with multiple full-time team members that specialize in various areas of developing, designing, and maintaining websites.

How many hours does it take to make a website?

Building a website on your own can take anywhere between a few hours to a few days to make a website, depending on your skill set and the tools you’re using.

However, if you are hiring a web design agency, it can take days, months, or maybe even a year to make a completely customized website. The entire process boils down to the design between you and your development team, and executing that to perfection can take quite a while. Atarim also has a detailed post about how long projects can take, addressing some of the most common bottlenecks.

Conclusion

Getting a website up and running isn’t just about finding the right agency, paying them to do it, and then forgetting about it until it’s ready for launch. A website is a creative, collaborative process that goes down a two-way street. Your development team will need your input, ideas, and vision to help make your website as accurate as you envision it.

Becoming the ideal client is essential, especially when working on a creative project. Clients who are enjoyable to work with help motivate the development team working with them, eventually producing a better final product.

About the Author

Vito Peleg is the Founder and CEO of Atarim, the most advanced website collaboration system on the planet. Vito built his first website at 14 years old on GeoCities and then started building websites for clients as a freelancer while touring the world as the leader of a rock band. This eventually grew into an agency with a team of 12 based in London before creating Atarim to redefine the way agencies work.

The post Becoming The Ideal Client: 10 Ways To Work Well with Your Web Design Agency appeared first on WebDevStudios.

When it comes to remote work teams, meetings are an essential activity for getting aligned on expectations and working efficiently together. They are also a great tool to connect with your colleagues. However, to avoid wasting time, it’s important to make meeting more effective.

As one of the project managers at WebDevStudios, I have some useful tips.

5 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Effective

1. Reassess the purpose.

Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this meeting?” Routine meetings are often scheduled at a point in the project when they are necessary.

While these meetings were effective at one point in time, it’s important to reassess these calls to determine if they are still relevant. If you find yourself saying, “This could have been an email,” after a recurring call, it’s likely time to cancel it.

2. Include the right people in your meetings.

Ask yourself, “Who needs to be on this call?” Depending on the purpose of your call, make sure you know who from your team actually needs to be included.

Will you need a specific team member’s input or expertise on an issue? Or, do you need to brainstorm a blocker with the full team?

Do you need some additional support on a client call, and who is best to provide that? To ensure you aren’t wasting your team’s time or resources, make sure to only include those who need to be in attendance.

3. Prepare an agenda.

To really make your meetings more effective, set clear expectations for the call up front using an agenda. It should be a brief outline of what needs to be discussed.

Feel free to send the meeting agenda out to all participants prior to the call to set the meeting up for success. For example, if the point of your call is to discuss a specific feature or request, use your agenda to outline the key points that need to be clarified or addressed.

4. Control the meeting, but not the conversation.

If the people in your meeting are the essential parties needed to participate in the discussion, they will all have an important role to play for your call. While you are in charge of leading the meeting, make sure that you are facilitating in a way that everyone is able to chime in.

Call facilitators should start a meeting by defining the agenda and setting the tone for what should be accomplished. After that, it’s time to back off and let the discussion begin.

Toward the end of the call, it’s time for the facilitator to jump back in to guide the call conclusion and define next steps. This leads me to my next point.

5. End on time and define the action items.

If you are facilitating a call, you should always aim to end on time. Hopefully, you have guided your team to stay on track throughout the call to support this.

However, in the event that you need to end a meeting, it is okay to let all participants know that it is time to wrap up. An easy way to communicate this is simply by stating, “I have a hard stop at [X] time.”

If you find yourself needing to end a call due to time limitations, wrap it up with a summary of the action items that need to be completed following the meeting. Identify who is responsible for completing them. Once next steps have been communicated and agreed upon, everyone should be aligned on what is happening next.

Conclusion

Ultimately, you’ll need to customize your approach to making meetings more effective in a way that fits your company. However, if you are overwhelmed with meetings, I hope these tips help.

The post 5 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Effective appeared first on WebDevStudios.

As a company or project manager, it can be difficult to know which methodology is best for your project or team. Here at WebDevStudios, we have used a blended project methodology and really leaned into the client, project, and team to determine the best route to go when managing the project lifecycle.

Agile vs. Waterfall

Does your project need to complete one phase, such as design, before moving into any development? If so, then you will probably run the project using the waterfall methodology. Essentially, each phase of the project needs to be completed before the team can start working on the next phase of work.

Can the development team start building out the homepage while the designer continues on mockups for the events page? If so, agile is the way to go. The team can continuously be working on various phases of the project at the same time.

It is key that the team determine how they will run the project at initiation so that the overall project roadmap aligns with how the project will be carried out. There are benefits and risks to using either methodology, but comparing agile vs. waterfall should help to determine what is best for your website project.

Waterfall Methodology

Waterfall is historically one of the most well-known project management methodologies and, quite frankly, where my project management skills initiated straight out of college. I worked for a digital marketing and print production company and the project processes truly followed waterfall.

When using waterfall, your team will typically work with the client to define the requirements at project initiation that will ultimately align with the project completion expectations. The easiest way to think about it is that the project is broken down into phases. Each phase will be completed before the next phase starts.

Here is an example of our project lifecycle when using waterfall:

Strategy -> Design -> Development -> QA/UAT -> Launch -> Support

Benefits of Waterfall

Although many think of waterfall as an archaic way to develop software, there are many benefits. If you have a client who has a fixed budget, waterfall allows you to align the scope of work with that budget, while also setting a hard timeline.

It is also helpful to use waterfall when you have a busy external stakeholder who may not have the time to be involved in the project or give consistent feedback. Because the requirements are set up front, it allows the team to just get to work and bring the client back in the end for quality assurance (QA).

There are, of course, risks to this approach. In software development, not having consistent feedback can lead to change requests at the end when the client sees the product for the first time during QA.

Your client may feel all requirements were defined up front, but the reality is not all requirements can be fully defined up front. So, there are typically more change requests when working waterfall as the scope and budget are fixed. That means there isn’t room for ongoing refinement.

Agile Methodology

Because of these risks and challenges, many companies have moved to agile methodologies. We have been implementing the agile framework more and more here at WebDevStudios.

Do you need to work quickly, but are okay with continuous implementation and improvement? The key factor when using agile is being okay with not having the full project plan, budget, or timeline outlined at the beginning.

For example, the budget may be a range. There may also only be a general direction for the team on the end goal. Instead of strategizing the entire project, we start building the foundational product backlog based on high-level goals.

During the first week, the team can start sprint planning and refinement. They can dig into the requirements of the first milestone, build out user stories, and set the sprint goal. The team will only commit to what they can accomplish in the two week sprint.

During the sprint, the team meets daily for a quick standup to discuss what they completed and what they will work on next. Agile adds a level of team collaboration that you do not see with waterfall.

Here is an example of our project lifecycle when using agile.

Sprint Refinement -> Sprint Planning -> Daily Standup -> Sprint Review -> Sprint Retrospective… (Repeat)

Benefits of Agile

The biggest benefits to running software development projects using the agile methodology is that you are able to have more control of the project. Additionally, you can produce a better product that aligns more with client expectations every step of the way.

The other key benefit of agile is consistent communication with your team and your client throughout the project lifecycle. Through each agile ceremony, you are able to communicate status, risks, and challenges.

You can also easily collaborate with your team and your client. This helps avoid scope creep, miscommunication, and assumptions.

The risk with running your project agile is that you may not have the exact timeline and budget outlined up front. Although this can be difficult to explain to clients, the benefits of agile far outweigh the risks.

Which is best for you?

In the end, my vote will always be to run a project using the agile methodology when possible. I am a big proponent of consistent communication, team success, and client satisfaction. The agile methodology really promotes these key factors when implemented properly.

What do you think? Will you try implementing agile for your next big website project?

Or, do you lean toward waterfall? Whichever methodology you choose, agile vs. waterfall, contact us to help you implement the best methodology for your project.

The post Agile vs. Waterfall appeared first on WebDevStudios.

At WebDevStudios, our digital strategy team and project management office (PMO) take the responsibility of planning and organizing off your plate, just as a travel agent or guide would when planning your adventure. We partner alongside you, the client, to map out your website project. We uncover your site’s needs, create a detailed plan, help keep it on track, and ensure it reaches completion within your budget and on time.

Digital Strategy

We view digital strategy as the process to uncover the real goals and objectives of your website in order to make a detailed project plan. We pose questions like:

• What will the site look like?
• How will it function?
• What’s the timeline?
• How much will it cost?

Quite often, answers to questions like these provide the team with the right information to build out your project.

Project Management

Project management (PM) is the guide that helps the project follow the plan from execution to completion. We leverage not only our skills and experience but use PM processes and methodologies to get your web project to the finish line; meeting the agreed acceptance criteria, keeping it within budget and launching according to your deadlines.

Project Life Cycle

It all starts with a signed contract. The digital strategy team, along with your own team, will hold many collaborative calls; poking and prodding to find the true goals of the website. They want to understand the audience, the functionality, the look, etc. From here they build out a detailed plan and timeline.

The digital strategy team then meets with the PM of the project and those engineers that are building the site. They call this the ‘internal handoff,’ but don’t think this is where strategy steps away. They are around until the project is complete.

The PM on your project then watches closely; checking the work against the project plan, making sure the team stays on track and doesn’t get derailed. When questions come up during the build, the digital strategy team is right there with details on how it should work.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

-Benjamin Franklin

Skipping the Process

What happens if you don’t want to use digital strategy and project management in your website project? Well, just imagine going on that trip mentioned at the beginning of this post without a plan. Would you find all the sites without a map? Unlikely. Would you find all the sights within your timeline out there? Probably not. Would you overspend? I bet!

Same goes for embarking on a website project. We all want to just start a project and get the perfect product. Without the proper planning of both digital strategy and project management, you will quickly find yourself constantly fixing things to meet your expectations, which ultimately costs time and money.

For example…

You want a simple block, logo, menu item that wasn’t originally planned for. Now, you have to find a place on your website for this new item.

It’s not just a matter of dropping it wherever. You have to bring in a designer, look at the placement, and maybe even move other features, have a call or two, develop it, and get approval from stake holders. Any change that takes place after the planning process can have a domino effect and push the timeline or require more resources, which ultimately costs you more money.

Every website project needs both digital strategy and project management.

Both digital strategy and project management are so incredibly important for any website project. We draft out what you really need and help keep the project from derailing. We ultimately are your biggest advocates and want to see your project succeed.

Need a team with an excellent strategy and project management team to help build your next website? Work with us!

The post Digital Strategy and Project Management: Your Website Project Needs Both appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Campbell’s Snow Day Campaign

As a project manager at WDS, I have the opportunity to work with a variety of amazing clients. One of our longtime partners is the Campbell Soup Company. Late last year, they came to us with an exciting campaign they were launching. In light of the recent turn to virtual learning due to the ongoing pandemic, they wanted to launch a campaign to bring back the snow day! We thought it was a great idea full of potential, but there was one caveat—the timeline to launch was quick and included a tight deadline. 

As the end of the year was quickly approaching and winter was falling upon many regions, there was an urgent push to get the Save the Snow Day campaign launched. With this campaign, users come to the site to pledge to help save the snow day. They are asked to to enter their zip code, which then shows up on an interactive map to see where others who have pledged are also located. In addition, users have the option to share on Instagram, download coloring page PDFs, and at the beginning of the launch, could even sign up to receive a free snow day kit.

What were we building?

As with any project, the first step is understanding what the goal and requirements are of the project. This is even more crucial with a tight deadline because you don’t want to waste any time focusing on something not critical to the build. In this case, our strategy team worked closely and quickly with the client to determine this project needed:

• A teaser page
• A landing page on a new domain
• Integration with a form and Salesforce API
• The ability to map pinpoints on a map
• Instagram plugin
• Ability to download PDFs

How much time did we have?

Once we knew what we were building, we needed to understand if those requirements aligned with timeline and budget. In this case, the teaser page needed to be up within a week of kicking off strategy. The full landing page would launch a few weeks after that. All in all, it ended up being about a seven-week timeline from first learning about the project to launching the full landing page.

Assembling the Team

Who had the bandwidth to take this on? What skills did the team need to possess? 

Knowing we had to move quickly, we understood there would be some crossover amongst teams as well. It was important that as our strategy team was working with the client to understand the deliverables, they were also in constant communication with our engineering team. Allowing the engineers to give their input up front on the way to handle some of the requirements allowed for them to move a bit quicker when it came time for actual development. We assembled a small but nimble team who had the bandwidth and skills ready to take on the project challenges.

Gathering the Materials

In a perfect world, you have everything you need to get started on a project before diving in. However, with tight timelines, sometimes you need to start early with whatever you have. We ensured that the engineers had the access they needed as soon as possible to get the site stood-up and that we had a finalized version of the mock-ups. Like most projects, we understood things may need to be adjusted slightly, but we didn’t want that to hold us up from getting started.

The first part of this build was a teaser page. We knew we could stand that up quickly once we had necessary site access. This bought a bit of time on both sides to get the remaining assets and approvals needed for the full landing page build. Whenever it’s possible to work in phases or stages, it’s a great route to go, especially in tight time situations.

Site Build and PM’ing the Process

The most crucial element once we entered the development process was continued communication with both the internal and client teams. We couldn’t just go heads down and pop out on the other side with a finished product. We had to ensure everyone was on the same page the whole time since there wasn’t a lot of room for error here. 

As a project manager, it was my job to ensure all tasks were outlined clearly with their deliverables. Don’t make your team go hunting for requirements. I ensured each task had an objective, user stories, technical requirements, screen shot, and links to any other applicable documents. The sooner an engineer can dive into the work, the sooner things are going to get done. At the same time, if there are questions that arise, it’s my job to be available as needed and work between my internal teams and the client teams to help remove any blockers or barriers.

As we were developing, if we ran into any issues we alerted the Campbells team as soon as possible. They would then work to respond quickly with answers. Likewise, if a change came up from the Campbells side, we had to ensure we were agile enough that we could address the change.

Working within a small team allowed us to quickly adapt and provide visibility to what everyone was working on. It allowed for constant communication between myself as a PM with my team, as well as amongst engineers. It’s crucial when working with a tight deadline that you have everyone’s buy-in from the beginning—both from an internal and client side.

Time for Launch

As development was finishing up, we had to ensure it went through the proper channels for approval. This included client reviews, legal reviews, and security reviews. Although no major issues arose, we needed to make sure we had availability to jump on any last minute changes before going live. Because this was a larger campaign that was getting launched in conjunction with multiple press releases and such, we needed to ensure the landing page would be ready to go as soon as we got the approval.

On December 2, 2020, the landing page officially went live receiving rave reviews from multiple national sources. We couldn’t have been more proud to be a part of it! Even after launch, the team didn’t hesitate to make a few adjustments to improve user experience.  For example, due to the overwhelming response, the number of zip code points quickly overtook the whole map. Our team refined that function by grouping zip codes together that would expand only upon zoom to improve the visual experience.

So what did we learn about project management and tight deadlines?

1. Ensure everyone understands the overall project goal.

It’s important everyone on the project has an understanding of the ultimate goal. It’s not enough to just create a list of tasks and have a team blindly build a site and be done with it. For this project, there were a lot of “why” questions asked in the beginning to help our team understand what the end goal was. In understanding the bigger picture, it helps with problem solving and prioritization of tasks.

In this example, the main element was collecting user data to illustrate zip codes on a map. This was to help bring awareness to the number of individuals pledging to save the snow day. With that understanding we were able to focus on the user experience of the form and the map functionality. It doesn’t mean that other elements of the build don’t get the same attention to detail, but it ensures everyone has a shared vision of what the larger focus should be.

Once we had an understanding of what we were trying to achieve with the map, we comprehended the complexities of integrating a map with a form. Having a clear understanding helped the team pinpoint the exact functionality of what was needed so we could work together to find the best solutions possible.

2. Keep clear and constant communication amongst all teams.

I can’t stress enough how important communication is. It’s important on any project, but with tight deadlines, it’s extremely essential. From the very beginning, you need to ensure that both the client and internal teams understand this is going to take commitment from both sides to meet the deadline. If there are delays on either end, it could put the project in jeopardy.

Internally, the team must be in constant communication with one another to ensure transparency. This can be done by setting up daily scrums, ensuring progress reports are left on tasks, and encouraging team members to ask questions if they get stuck.  If they are unclear on something, it’s important they feel comfortable reaching out to the team to avoid going down the wrong path. You don’t want to hinder productivity by pinging someone or checking in with them every two seconds, but it’s important as a project manager to have an understanding where everyone is on a daily basis for progress tracking.

With the client, communication is just as important. From the very beginning, it needs to be clear what the requirements are and any deliverables they’ll be responsible for. As the project progresses, you want to ensure you’re in constant communication of status updates. 

It’s recommended to set up ongoing status meetings, provide demos to confirm alignment on features, and set expectations on response times needed. You want to ensure the client understands if blockers come up we’ll need to work together to find a solution so that progress isn’t delayed. Having a strong relationship from the onset with the client, where you know you can rely on them and they can rely on you in a timely manner, is crucial to these types of projects.

3. Set clear expectations from the beginning and stick to them.

From the onset of a project, it’s important to be clear about the requirements, deliverables, and expectations. With a tight deadline, there will be little room to readjust, so you need to ensure that everyone is on the same page from the beginning. This starts with outlining a clear timeline, with deadlines for deliverables, and getting everyone’s buy-in and approval.

You also want to ensure requirements are clearly stated within a project plan and when building out tasks. This will help alleviate any confusion as you work throughout the build so that everyone is aware of exactly what was agreed upon for this time and budget.

Aside from the actual requirements, you also want to make it clear what the expectations will be from both sides. From a WDS side, we ensure clients know they can expect daily updates from us, demos of the work, and timely communication. In response, it’s important clients understand their expectations such as providing timely feedback, sticking to the agreed-upon requirements, and providing any needed deliverables.

The sooner you can set expectations the better, and ensure you stick to them throughout the project. This will ensure the project stays on track from a timing, budget, and deliverable perspective.

Looking toward your next project?

Working with a tight deadline certainly has its challenges. Making use of effective project management strategies can help ensure the success of any last-minute marketing campaigns.

As illustrated above, the Campbell’s Save the Snow Day campaign is the perfect example of those practices.  By ensuring everyone understands the project goal, encouraging constant communication, and providing a clear set of expectations we were able to help Campbells launch an incredibly successful campaign.   

Need a team with an excellent project management team to help build your next website? Contact us!

The post Tight Deadline? Use These Project Management Tips appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Project management is critical as it is the practice of managing resources, time, and budget to deliver a set of requirements. Project managers effectively make sure there are the necessary resources in place to stay on budget and deliver an agreed upon scope within the agreed upon timeframe. So if you have never worked with a project manager what exactly does that mean? As I tell new clients, bear with me, and I will tell you just how to make the most of your relationship with your project manager.

Before we dive in, however, let’s tackle some common misconceptions.

Misconception #1: Project management is unnecessary.

The biggest misconception I have encountered when it comes to clients who have never worked with a project manager is that they assume project management is an unnecessary expense. Oftentimes clients think they can decrease their budget by asking to eliminate the role of the project manager.

What clients fail to realize is that if you remove the project manager you are removing the monitor of the aforementioned budget. They may think that they will be saving money, but they most likely will be spending a lot more in the end as nobody will be monitoring the spend daily.

Misconception #2: Project managers are just middle people.

Another misconception I have encountered is that project managers either collect information from the development team and relay that to the client or collect information from the client and relays the information to the development team throughout the entire life cycle of the project. Though that can be true, a good project manager is able to take ownership of the information before it is actually raised by either party. They aren’t just a go between; they are a translator, even a mind reader at times.

Now here’s what you should know if you have never worked with a project manager.

Project managers are your biggest allies.

Project managers (PM) are often seen as the naysayers in the project because they often have to tell you the hard truth when timelines and budgets are getting tight. Instead of seeing your PM as the negative Nelly, see them as your biggest ally since that is exactly what they are.

Nobody likes to be told that they are running out of money or time, but wouldn’t you rather have someone tell you your bank account is getting low before you bounce a check? PMs are just looking out for your dollars and cents and care for your budget more than they are given credit for.

Project managers are great listeners.

Project managers may talk a lot on calls as they provide what can seem like endless updates, but project managers are actually great listeners. By listening carefully, PMs are able to identify requirements, risks and dependencies sometimes without clients even being able to identify these themselves. Never feel like you say too much in front of your project manager. There are vital pieces of information in there, I promise.

Project managers believe in your success.

I have never met a client that I did not want to see succeed. Don’t get me wrong. I have met my fair share of folks who don’t quite see the value in a PM, but I never stopped wanting them to be successful nor did I stop managing the project in such a way where that would be the outcome. When you work with a project manager, know that your PM wants you to succeed just as much as you want to. Even better, they have the tools and resources to actually get you there.
 

In conclusion, trust your project manager.

Finally, trust your project manager and have faith in the process. Project managers offer so much more value than status updates and time reports. They truly do want what is best for the project and for you as a client. They will be your biggest ally throughout the life cycle of the project, listen thoughtfully to hear what success looks like for you, and identify potential risks that could get in the way. Project managers, especially the amazing team here at WDS, want you to be successful by carefully managing time, budget, and resources. When you trust your project manager, you can trust that your project will be a success.

Are you ready to work with a project manager to help build your next website and make it a success? Contact us!

The post Never Worked with a Project Manager? Here’s What You Need to Know! appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Many people wonder why they need a project manager for their projects and team. They may even think it’s a waste of time and resources. However, the benefits of project management far outweigh the costs. In fact, project management results in higher client satisfaction, reputation improvement, and less risk for your projects and company. Before we can address the full benefits of having a formal project management process, however, we need to note who the beneficiaries are.

Who Benefits from Project Management?

Project management not only sets your team up for success, but also guarantees quality projects and services for your customers. Between new projects, a growing team, and more and more clients, it becomes increasingly more difficult to stay organized and communicate with your team.

When you have a project manager to organize and oversee projects, you have someone tracking the scope, budget, and timing of everything in your workload. Projects that come in on time, on budget, and cover scope, make for happy clients; and for WebDevStudios where client success is our mission, client happiness is our goal every time.

We’re all about client satisfaction, but we also enjoy employee satisfaction. Project management provides the support and communication to keep our team in the loop and up to date on all projects. Not only can project managers provide strong communication for projects, but they also manage and balance workloads between team members. This prevents unnecessary stress and allows proper work-life balance for all employees, resulting in a happy and healthy team!

What Are the Benefits of Project Management?

Now that we’ve covered the who, let’s get into the what. What are the benefits to project management?

Project managers are key to maintaining project organization, quality communication between stakeholder and team members, and overseeing all the steps and milestones of a project from the initial contact to completion. They facilitate the full project process, ensuring the scope is met, the project remains within budget, and quality communication is had between stakeholders and team members.

A project manager at WebDevStudios will:

• Schedule and plan for necessary meetings with stakeholders and ensure transparent communication with clients throughout the project life cycle
• Define the project scope, based on the project proposal and prior communication
• Coordinate and manage tasks and milestones of a project
• Handle and ensure quality communication between team members
• Manage the project timeline and budget from initiation to completion
• Plan resources based on client’s budgetary expectations
• Use proper project management tools and software to organize the project’s team and scope
• Ensure top-notch work by overseeing and scheduling the quality assurance process

And more…

Why Should I Have a Project Manager on My Project?

If you’re not convinced yet, let’s talk about the why. Why should I have a project manager overseeing my project? Project management has proven to be a key part to finding success when working on projects.

In fact, the Pulse of the Profession study found that businesses with clear project management processes are 38% more successful at meeting project goals when compared to those without. And, when a typical one in six IT projects have a cost overrun of 200%, it’s important to have someone watching the scope and budget.

Even outside of the IT world, the same study found that with businesses documenting high project failure rate, 41% were attributed to a lack of involvement from project management.

At WebDevStudios, you can always count on having a skilled project manager overseeing your website build. Does your team use project management? How do they contribute to the project process? Please comment below on how project managers have benefited your project workflow!

The post The Benefits of Project Management appeared first on WebDevStudios.

1. What will your website look like?
2. How will your website work?
3. How long will it take to build?
4. How much does it cost?

Answering these questions and defining the scope of work requires:

• An understanding of the needs and requirements for the project
• A series of meetings with the WDS digital strategy team
• Documentation of a fully realized list of ideas, features, and requirements
• A precise review of mock-ups provided to ensure all potential scenarios for every user type have been accounted for
• A plan that targets your timeline and budget
• A prioritization of the deliverables to ensure a smooth development and release process

WebDevStudios Digital Strategy Team

Identify Requirements

The first step of our digital strategy team is to understand your website project goals, the success criteria of your project, as well as the current state of things in your current environment. We’ll do this through a series of collaborative meetings with you over a specified period of time.

Example Client Goals

• An increase in newsletter subscribers.
• Improvement and reworking of the user experience
• Take newly-created website designs and turn them into a working website
• Push website data to a CRM

During the strategy process, our aim is to uncover things you might not think to consider.

Example Questions We Ask

• What does your website’s content hierarchy look like?
• When a user lands on a specific page, what do you want them to do?
• How will users on your site interact with a particular element?
• Do you have multiple user types, and do they each have unique ways of interacting with the website?
• How are specific elements managed on the backend by your administrators and editors?

We also do a deep dive into the actual functionality and technology requirements for your site. For example:

• Third-party API connections for passing or obtaining user data
• Support for eCommerce either onsite or through third parties
• Custom forms
• Business process automation
• CRM integrations

Our goal is to exhaust all questions that could be asked in order to bring us to our next step of defining solutions.

Define Solutions

In the world of technology, there is not always just one way to accomplish something. Once we have identified the goals and requirements for your website project, we can begin to determine how we’ll meet those goals and explore the different paths to meeting them.

The intention of defining solutions is not to choose the first opportunity. Instead, it is to find all opportunities and weigh them against the timeline and budget so that we can make the most educated recommendation. The solutions presented by our digital strategy team are based on our strong technical experience, especially in the WordPress space, and use the most innovative tools and technology.

Recommend Approach

No two projects are the same; so, it is not as simple as defining a single set of tools and workflows for every project. The technologies used to complete those projects may differ as we tailor our recommendations to each individual project.

Our recommended approach will be a combination of a focus on project goals, the timeline that needs to be met, and the budget allocated for the project. The details of the deliverables will vary per project but will always be delivered as a project plan. The project plan is a comprehensive document containing all of the low-level and high-level requirements for the project.

What a Project Plan Includes

• Design(s), if needed
• Documented functionality requirements
• Documented user experience for that functionality
• Recommended third-party tools, if needed
• Research and feedback for existing functionality
• Plan for launching
• Timeline for completion, including phases
• Budget requirements

The intention of our digital strategy team is to strip away all possibilities of vague or unclear language around development requirements, so that both of our teams are set up for success. Once the project plan is complete and approved by the client, it will serve as the guide for our engineering team to take the next steps for development kickoff.

When you are ready to start your next website project with WDS and strategize website goals, requirements, and user experience, contact us! We can’t wait for you to meet our extraordinary digital strategy team.

The post Why Digital Strategy Is an Important Part of Your Website Project appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Strategy & Planning

Once we have a signed proposal/contract, our Strategy team is ready to start gathering requirements. The project strategy and planning phases is the information gathering process designed to dig deep into the details of what is important to a client’s business, target audience, industry, and the project proposed. This phase sets the momentum for the project life cycle of your new WordPress website.

Through a series of phone calls, our team outlines features, user stories, and technical requirements. Scope and depth of research will differ from project to project based on the proposal, but the results are the same: valuable information that will help to define the final project plan and budget.

Design

At WDS, the design phase is the process of envisioning and defining solutions for our clients via a sequence of steps to enable our digital designer to describe all aspects of the project/website. We partner with our clients to plan their products’ information architecture and user experience from the ground up through user flows, user personas, and wire framing.

The design phase of the project life cycle of your new WordPress website is thorough and will consider accessibility, scalability and performance when creating the style guide and mock-ups. Every client is unique and the digital designer will help to define the design phase per project based on client requirements and information gathered during strategy and planning.

Data Migration

If you are moving from another content management system, or want a fresh WordPress install, your website will require data migration. The data migration phase typically starts by providing WDS access to your database or your database files. With access to your database, our development team pulls together a data mapping document, writes a data migration script, and starts the import process.

Once we complete the initial import into our development environment, we do a quality assurance review against the data mapping document to ensure all content imported correctly. Our development team will be working with your actual data during the development process to ensure the launch process goes seamless.

Development

Once we have the final approved designs and project plan, our engineering team is ready to start programming your website. This phase for the project life cycle of your new WordPress website focuses on building all global elements, content modules, and/or page templates using WordPress coding standards. Our team will code custom features and functionality based on your project requirements using custom code and plugins. Additionally, throughout the development phase, our lead engineers perform code reviews on all features to ensure proper sanitization, caching, and security are in place.

Quality Assurance (QA) / User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Review

Once all development tasks are complete, our development team performs cross browser and device testing to ensure responsiveness and accessibility are in place. We run your new custom theme through our WDS theme check plugin. Our development team also runs a query monitor and report to ensure that the website is performant prior to launch.

Launch

Each new website project that we work on has a unique launch plan. Typically, the following steps are taken during this phase to move the site from our development environment to your staging and production environment:

• The lead engineer sets up staging and production environments on your host and sets up deployments.
• We will then request a content freeze in order to start the final data migration process.
• Once the site has been moved over to your environment and a quality assurance test has been completed, you will be ready to switch the domain DNS/cpanel.
• And… your new WordPress website is now live for your company and users!

Support

At WDS, we guarantee our development work by providing a support phase after project completion. We use this time to squash any minor bugs or issues that came up during launch and make certain that your company is happy with your new website. We also offer extended or ongoing support and maintenance options for our clients.

Overall, WDS has set the standard for managing website design and development projects. Our goal is to partner with your team and provide a quality WordPress website based on your goals and requirements. If you’re ready to start your project, contact us today!

The post The Project Life Cycle of Your New WordPress Website appeared first on WebDevStudios.

When is agile project management appropriate?

Agile and scrum, specifically, a subcategory of agile, are known as the fail fast methods, often working to deliver a minimal viable product (MVP). This method is appropriate for projects when there is a set of clear requirements, but the how and end result are up for discussion. Agile allows you to build something in a sprint, lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks often; and at the end, produce a feature. Then, after reviewing, the team with the client can discuss if changes are necessary.

Agile is a popular project management methodology because it puts the product in front of the stakeholder a lot sooner. Perfection is not the goal, meeting the requirements is. Then, the team can iterate on that. Below are the benefits.

Priorities

Agile project management allows for the ability to change direction from sprint to sprint. Tasks are all managed in a backlog until they are ready for development. Only when all parties agree upon what tasks will be worked on in a sprint, does development on those tasks begin. The priority of tasks in the backlog can change constantly. This is great for clients that know they might want to reduce the priority of or limit certain work orders at any given time in the project.

Grooming sessions of the backlog and future sprints take place throughout the life cycle of the project to ensure that the tasks are always in priority order and the team is clear on what should be worked on next. This also indicates to the client that the next priority tasks need to have fully fleshed out requirements and user stories.

Requirements

A sprint only begins when all tasks have complete requirements, no unanswered questions, user stories, and acceptance criteria. This is another benefit of agile. Development doesn’t need to slow down and tasks do not become blocked because all of the necessary information is available to the team before they begin working. This also creates great structure for clients. They know in order for the team to begin work they need to provide the necessary details in the task.

For example, a task with the requirement of ‘develop a carousel module’ is considered insufficient. This task still requires a user story. This would read something like:

As a site admin, I can add a carousel to the homepage of my website that can contain up to four slides where I can change the background color or add an image. I can add titles, subtitles and buttons to the slide. I can move this module anywhere on the homepage.

A user story like this outlines clearly what the client needs and expects. The product delivered will make sure that this user story is satisfied then.

Definition of ‘done’

Sometimes at the end of a project, there is some discussion over whether a feature is complete. Agile eliminates the gray areas. Not only are the clear requirements and user stories for each individual task discussed, but the collective team, including client stakeholders, determine what the definition of ‘done’ means. It benefits everyone to know that when something is marked as complete; all parties have a clear understanding of what that means.

An example of ‘done’ could mean that the feature has been code reviewed by the project team and confirmed that it meets the acceptance criteria and satisfies the user story. Or an alternative could be that the feature has been code reviewed by the project team, reviewed on the staging server by the product owner and merged to production.

In the example of the carousel, if we went with the latter definition of ‘done,’ that would mean the internal project team reviewed the code and it was approved. This was then passed over to the client to review on their staging server for testing. They would need to confirm that they can, in fact, add the module to the homepage, change the background image and color, add titles, subtitles and buttons to each of the four slides.

Once confirmed, this feature is ready to be merged to production. Once it makes its way to production, then, and only then, can this feature be marked as done. If the feature does not get merged in, this task is incomplete by the definition of done that the team has set at the onset of the project. No arguments will ensue because this is something that has already been agreed upon.

It seems like an oxymoron that a methodology could be both structured and flexible, but agile is just that. It is structured enough to make sure what is delivered meets requirements and is properly marked as complete, but flexible enough that scope can change. This is why both project managers and clients alike use, love, and benefit from agile project management.

If you want to skip the marathon and sprint with us to take advantage of the benefits of agile project management, contact us today!

The post Benefits of Agile Project Management appeared first on WebDevStudios.