During the research for our report, Best Practices for Creating a Web Strategy, I had the chance to talk to several practitioners, including many from our community of practice, about their web strategy experiences, and learn about the critical factors for success.
Two key recommendations from practitioners were:
- Speak the language of your organisation
- Make problems and benefits tangible
First, in terms of speaking the language of your organisation, you could start by asking yourself:
- Do I have a clear picture of which strategies already exist in the organisation?
- What are the organisational values?
- How is success measured in my organisation?
Considering these factors first will give your web strategy a greater chance of succeeding. Also, keep in mind that some organisations are driven by numerical analysis and finance. Others are driven by stories about users who complain. Likewise, keep the web strategy in a format that works in your organisation. This might be a short document; it might be a presentation. Do keep it short, though, as you will need to communicate it outside your web team.
Secondly, you need to make problems tangible, so they can be understood by executives who generally have little understanding of the web. Top management is often where the strategy has to be signed off, and if you are asking for more resources you will certainly need to show what difference you will create for the organisation. Often, web managers will focus too much on low level problems and technical details that are irrelevant to others.
Some examples of translating web problems into business problems could be:
- Demonstrate how the organisation is losing money with the current web organisation
- Short videos of usability test showing customers leaving your site
- Simple visual diagrams of how the website connects sales people with customers
- Benchmarking against competitors
What are your tips for making web activities understandable and tangible for the rest of the organisation?
