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to ask before you start a web project

Sample

41 Questions

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41 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Web Project

Table of Contents
Strategy Marketing and Positioning Design Production Management Meeting Guides 5 9 12 15 18 22

Introduction Starting a web project is a difficult and confusing task. Sure, the initial idea seems simple: a website or application that helps your business. Just come up with a list of features and start building, right? Unfortunately, the first meeting reveals the problem. Building a website or application is a complex task, involving many stakeholders, points of view and relationships to the business model driving the company. With all these disparate and sometimes conflicting ties, its easy to see how complicated it is to figure out how to approach the project. Much of the complexity is due to not fully understanding the problem. Often, web projects begin in the insulated comfort of a blue-sky what-if meeting, where creative ideas are bountiful and resistance scarce. As the project begins to affect the work of others within the organization, resistance mounts. People start to ask questions, start to challenge your assumptions and start to chip away at your previous confidence in the project. Luckily, this can be avoided. By starting a web project with the right questions, youll be able to frame the project around a clear business need and cover most, if not all, of the important ramifications. Knowing what to ask, however, isnt always easy. Where do you start? In this book, well work through 41 questions to start conversations about a new (or existing) web project. These questions will begin to help you frame the problem, establish constraints and dependencies, and organize your work. The result will be a much more bulletproof strategy that holds up to stakeholder scrutiny, allowing your project a much better chance of being successful. Yes, this seems like a lot of work. But working through these questions is critical to starting in the right direction and giving your project a much better chance for success - saving you time and money in the long run. These questions are presented in sections to allow you to identify the best people to help you. In each section, well talk about who should attend these meetings and why. This will help make initial meetings be more efficient and less apt to go off track. Dont feel as if you need to ask all of these questions, every time. Each web project is different, and assuming a one-size-fits-all plan is foolish. Instead, pick questions that are most applicable to the situation and use them to frame conversations. Choose some questions from each of the five sections, so as to provide you with a well-rounded approach to your conversations. Lastly, remember that these questions are just as valid in the middle of a project as they are at the beginning. Continuing to revisit these questions throughout the project will help you remain on

Introduction track toward a successful web project.

Strategy
The strategy portion of the your discussion is aimed to provide a clear understanding of what youre doing, and more importantly, why youre doing it. Most of the discussion around these questions should remain fairly high level, focusing on large business goals and direction. Stakeholders to include in the meeting: Organizational leaders in the organization whose work this project will impact. Vice-presidents, CEOs (if a smaller company, or a very large corporate initiative), managers and employees who will be involved in the day-to-day management of the project.

41 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Web Project Why are we doing this? This question seems basic, but its important to hear responses to understand completely how a project is viewed. Often, youll uncover competing or contradictory answers that requires further discussion. The key here is to assure the project will help the company solve a problem. Frame the discussion around defining the problem, and asking why this is the best solution. How does this fit into our business strategy? This is a positioning and strategy question designed to assure the web project fits into an existing business channel. Beware: If it appears the project doesnt fit into the companys current strategy, reach a consensus that its experimental in nature, and, therefore, will carry more risk. How is success measured for the project? How often will this be assessed? Measuring the success of the project, quantitatively, is a step surprisingly often overlooked. Dont overlook this. Knowing how youll measure success traffic volume, sales numbers, return on investment, etc. is critical to staying on track. Web projects can become money pits fast if this isnt planned from the beginning. Whats our budget? One of the obvious and necessary questions. Understanding the budget in detail will help you prioritize features and select platforms and vendors. Be as specific as possible, getting the budget into a range thats within 10% of the total projected project cost (i.e., $38,000 - $42,000). Whats our timeline? Another fairly obvious one, but something that has to be decided up front. Approaching a web project with the whenever its done mentality is a way to ensure the project never launches. Crafting a detailed timeline helps you coordinate other activities and hold vendors accountable.

Strategy Are there other business initiatives needing to correlate or coincide with the launch of this project? Web projects rarely launch in isolation. Often, theyre conceived as part of a larger plan: a product launch, a new service offering, a rebranding campaign. Know milestone dates of related initiatives as they may affect the site launch. After all, a product launch without an online sales channel is a disaster. If this project is unsuccessful, whats the plan for phasing it out? No one likes to think about failure, but its important. At some point, youll launch a web project that doesnt pan out like you thought it should. Using the success benchmarks discussed earlier, youll know when this is. When the company determines a project is unsuccessful, what do you do with it? Nursing an unsuccessful project drains resources. Having an exit plan in place at the beginning assures wise stewardship of the company resources. Have we done a competitive analysis? Are there other sites doing this? How are we better? There are a lot of websites and applications out there. If youre thinking of building the next social network, you need to fully understand what youre up against. Think carefully about the purpose of the site or application and how it will help your customers. Research whos doing similar things. Sometimes, thats enough to stop the project in its tracks. If you cant compete legitimately, dont waste your time or funds! Redefine the problem and solution and start over. What effect will this project have on other products and services? (Good news! Web projects sometimes create demand for products) Is your project geared at selling a new product? What fulfillment issues may arise through a spike of holiday traffic or a mention on a high profile website like Digg? Also, consider product or service cannibalization: Does launching this website or application threaten existing products or services? Nothing in business happens in isolation; everything is connected. Anticipate how the site launch will affect the rest of the product portfolio.

41 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Web Project

Is there another way to accomplish our goal? Dumb question? Maybe not. Sometimes, building a web project to solve a problem is appropriate. But can the same business goal be achieved through different means, such as using existing technologies and platforms (For example, use Ning instead of building a social networking platform) or creating a different product altogether? Understanding why the web is the best tool is critical to your success. What legal implications do we need to consider? (Terms of Service, copyright, etc.) Websites inevitably bring legal issues down the road. Are there content copyright issues to consider? How about licensing? What kind of photo usage agreements do you have? Does your website need a terms of service and a privacy policy? How do you plan on safeguarding user information and respecting privacy (particularly important for eCommerce websites)? Talking with an attorney who specializes in technology can help you find areas of future concern.

Meeting Guide - Strategy

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Meeting Guide - Strategy

The strategy portion of the your discussion is aimed to provide a clear understanding of what youre doing, and more importantly, why youre doing it. Most of the discussion around these questions should remain fairly high level, focusing on large business goals and direction. Why are we doing this? How does this fit into our business strategy? How is success measured for the project? How often will this be assessed? What is our budget? What is our timeline? Are there other business initiatives that need to correlate or coincide with the launch of this project? If this project is not successful, what will our plan be for phasing it out? Have we done a competitive analysis? Are there other sites doing this? How are we better? What effect will this product have on our other products and services? Is there another way to accomplish our goal? What legal implications do we need to consider?