For the last week I have been scouring some sites for best practices. During my search I have come across the occasional moment of interest. But more often I have found great ideas that weren’t fully executed. Fantastic puzzle pieces that never create the whole picture. Missed opportunities for sites to really shine.
This got me thinking about what makes up a best practice. Here’s my take: Read More→
Too many dotcom Web teams are borgs and butterflies. They need to be problem solvers.I faithfully read Seth Goden’s blog every morning. One reason is that it’s blissfully short [memo to self]. The other reason is the golden marketing nuggets he brings to the table.
This morning is such a moment – and one that speaks to why so many LOB execs and stakeholders constantly push back on dotcom Web teams pitching new designs or the latest industry trends.
They don’t think they have a problem.
Face it. From most stakeholders’ perspective, dotcom teams come in two flavors: the “borg” [you will be assimilated] and the “butterfly” [this is the latest trend and we need to capitalize on it]. Neither are focused on a problem from the stakeholder’s point of view.
But what if a dotcom team saw its stakeholders as customers? Like any good salesperson, the team would help stakeholders identify a problem and explore its cost or impact on the LOB.
In other words, dotcom teams should sell the problem.
Until stakeholders agree that they have a problem, the solution doesn’t count. That’s why so many projects end up in chaos. In pushback, deliberate inertia, and stakeholders who spend their time deliberately coloring outside of the lines.
Developing personas is a big part of Website team due diligence these days— especially when teams are rethinking their sites and staging for the next generation. They start by creating a list of the types of people who buy their products and visit their site. Project and business managers. Tech heads. CXOs (in their dreams). Well, you get the idea.
After the players are identified, the next step is an exhaustive drill down into what each visitor does, and the types of content a well-dressed Website needs to serve them. All of this heavy lifting usually results in a complex schematic of activities and values that act as a guidepost to keep the team on point.
Funny thing, though. This work never seems to show up on Websites. Read More→
We launched a new Website this week. It has plenty of bells and whistles and some cool technology that I’ve always admired on other sites. After the launch – and the requisite champagne toast – something smacked me upside the head.
This site is an example of an important inflection point.
Why? Because we conceived, designed & built this site in about 3 weeks. We didn’t have an interactive agency. A horde of programmers. Consultants. Contractors. Just us.
The reason this was doable is because our new site is built on an open-source WordPress platform, a template we tweaked and improved, plus an bazillion readily available plug-ins that nixed the need to hand-craft advanced features, bells and whistles — and important management tools (such as SEO optimization). Instead of getting out the coding book, we spent our time deciding which sets of features and capabilities addressed our visitors’ needs.
Oh, and one other thing. Designs, layouts, color palettes and cool doodads can be changed at the drop of a hat. Site management is a snap – and so is the document management system. Read More→
Juniper.net is pursuing an interesting strategy which I suspect most companies have missed. Last year, it did two things.
It launched a completely new Website in February.
Then it executed a wholesale update in October.
That wouldn’t be important, except for one thing. The October refresh was executed across the entire Website. From top to bottom. From stem to stern.
This, as it turns out, introduces a new design strategy into the mix. Until now, most Website teams have taken an incremental improvement approach, limiting updates and innovations to certain areas of their sites. A new home page; revamped product marketing zones; or a new look and feel for the top three layers of a site. The net result is that users have to re-learn the site every time they move between zones.
In contrast, Juniper.net’s approach is iterative. It’s not interested in hitting solid singles. It goes for the home run.
There are a couple of things to remember here. Read More→
I learned a fundamental truth this weekend – which happens to align with what I knew already, but forgot. You are never too high in the food chain to not be your own customer. I learned this years ago from IBM, when Steve Mills spent some quality time on the Software Group Website. Let’s just say, there were plenty of troops saluting by Monday morning, and the troops embarked on a two year campaign to clean up its online act.
I had the same experience this weekend when I decided to spend some quality time in our best practice case studies library. Look and feel was good, top level behaviors were fine – but when I started to really drive it I had a Steve Mills’ moment. If I were a customer, I’d be less than impressed. Let’s just say that there was plenty of saluting this weekend and there’s a new best practices case study library available to our clients Monday morning.
Which brings me to what my dad always told me. “The higher up the flag pole you go, the more your ass hangs out.” If you are at the top of the flagpole, you represent the reputation of your organization – and change always happens from the top down. Wherever you are on the flagpole, you need to be your most critical and important customer. If you aren’t, they will be . . . and that will ultimately affect your bottom line.
In my last post, I listed the five mistakes companies make when planning and operating their online communities. Mike Moran, one of the industry’s smartest search marketing gurus (and a former IBM.com’er), offers three pieces of great advice about how to carefully start an online community in his latest blog. Given what we’ve seen, I couldn’t agree more.
Idea communities factored greatly in our new report about the best and worst IT communities, and Dell.com’s IdeaStorm ended up as the poster child for an idea community gone off the rails. For those of you who want to avoid this fate, Mike ‘s related blog Do it Wrong Quickly offers three points that can help keep a lot of companies out of the ditch.
