ntc drupal day: early investment, better website
TRANSCRIPT
you should take before rebuilding your website
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Assemble the project team 1
Define your project scope 2
Assess resource options 3
Contact potential partners 4
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Post your RFP 5
Evaluate the talent 6
Establish project protocol 7
Secure a long-term relationship
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ASSEMBLE YOUR
PROJECT TEAM
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Keep to an effective size
Understand the time commitment
Prioritize big picture
Be willing to hurt feelings
Work well in groups
Fill key team roles
Cat herder
The authority
‘NO’ person
Brand watchdog
Organization liaison
Content king
Technical lead
Worker bees
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DEFINE YOUR
PROJECT SCOPE
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Clarify your needs
Get stakeholders on the same page
Proof of business case
Ability to stop project as needed
Who is your organization?
Why are you rebuilding your website?
Who are your users?
What do your users need?
What is your priority?
What are your available resources?
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ASSESS RESOURCE
OPTIONS
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Employees
Contractors
3rd Party Solutions
More affordable
Learn site inside and out
Already hired – skip RFP process
Already have day jobs
Missing expertise
Difficult to get approval
Expert in the field
Purchase block of time
Outside perspective
Expensive
Work remotely
Missing institutional knowledge
Best-of-Breed
Available now
Can remove site bloat
Must compromise
Can quickly change
You are just a number
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CONTACT POTENTIAL
PARTNERS
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Cons, camps, and meet-ups
Drupal.org
Industry sites, blogs, webinars
Talk to your friends…and enemies
Ensure good talent responds to RFP
Survey of the landscape
Reality check on scope and budget
New ideas to consider
Sense of your project’s crazy
Consider sending a pre-interview
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POST YOUR
RFP
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Direct about scope/timeline/budget
Specify what is flexible & what isn’t
Exchange commitments in writing
Break large projects into pieces
Allow for conversations
Provide limited information
Specify every single detail
Speak only to the sales team
Ask for spec work
Require a labored response
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EVALUATE THE TALENT
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Using Drupal for 3+ years
Team active in Drupal community
Proven experience with features
Breadth of web services
Similar sized organization
Motivated by similar missions
Communications is easy
Willing to work AND drink together
Can agree upon a start date
Rate/budget is not a stretch
Process style works for your team
Sites looks and work well
Wide range of work
See similar features you need
Work with nonprofits
Genre overlap with some clients
Similar sized budgets and scopes
References check out
Proposal fits your RFP perfectly
Won’t maintain their work
Don’t respond quickly
Team growing rapidly
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ESTABLISH PROJECT
BOUNDARIES
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Scope limitations
3rd party integration and custom code
Brand changes
Determine budget parameters
Track the budget
Plan for a contingency
Discuss long-term costs
Prepare for a start date
Determine launch date drivers
Wait to create a full timeline
Discuss why timeline might shift
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SECURE A LONG-TERM
RELATIONSHIP
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Be their cheerleader
Listen to each other
Respect your commitments
Be honest, direct, and transparent
Remember – you are humans
Formalize new projects
Have fun!
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Figure out what you want 1
Meet good people 2
Be nice to each other 3
Live happily ever after 4
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