Crafting an impactful online presence is essential for any business seeking success and growth. However, the journey to a well-designed website isn’t solely the responsibility of the web design team. It’s a collaborative effort that involves engaging all of your teams to ensure your site aligns with your brand’s vision, goals, and values.
From marketing and sales to customer support and beyond, your team(s) plays a crucial role in shaping your website’s aesthetics, functionality, and overall experience. Embracing this collaborative approach leads to an effective website. Everyone’s insights and contributions are factored in at the same time and so can be organized at the start of a site design.
Curating an event like this has intangible benefits also. Working together towards a common aim fosters a sense of ownership and collective pride among your employees.
What We'll Cover
Why do it
Involving your business teams in planning your web design project, even if they aren’t directly involved in web-related jobs, offers numerous benefits that can significantly impact the success of your website and overall business. Your business teams such as marketing, sales, and customer support, possess invaluable insights into your company’s overarching goals and objectives.
Your team can also provide insights into the functionalities they require on the website to perform their own duties efficiently. For example, engage your customer service staff to provide common questions with which to make FAQs. This will free them up to handle less common, more pertinent concerns.
As another example, engage your product and marketing staff for their input on what features customers ask about the most. Then, make those elements stand out more on your website for newcomers. Assess user engagement to improve how they interact with these critical touch points. Implementing this kind of feedback ensures your website meets the needs of your team, streamlines processes, and boosts productivity.
How to start
Bringing colleagues together for a meeting without a clear and familiar objective can be daunting. It’s common for feedback to diverge from the intended goals, making it essential to establish clear ground rules. Here are some strategies to help ensure your meetings are productive and focused:
1. Assign Responsibility
Start by identifying key individuals in each team or department who can provide valuable feedback. In a small business, this might involve everyone, while in larger organizations, it’s wise to ask the management team to recommend motivated and engaged employees. These selected individuals will be responsible for gathering and sharing insights from their respective areas, ensuring that all perspectives are considered.
2. Define Clear Objectives
Establish a specific objective for the meeting that aligns with your overall business goals. What is the desired outcome or deliverable? If you’re working with third-party partners for your online presence, clearly define what they need from you to advance the project. This clarity helps guide the discussion and keeps everyone focused on achieving tangible results.
3. Add Detail
Consider ahead of time how to ‘nudge’ the team towards these objectives. Only do so sparingly during a discussion, however. Remember, the goal of the meeting is ideas. Formalizing deliverables and assigning actions can happen at the end of the meeting or as a followup.
Before any meeting, think about how to guide the conversation toward the set objectives without stifling creativity. While it’s important to encourage open idea generation, subtly steer the discussion to ensure it stays aligned with your goals. You can formalize deliverables and assign action items at the end of the meeting or in a follow-up session, maintaining a balance between free-flowing ideas and structured outcomes.
Meetings don’t have to be dedicated discussions in boardrooms with formal invitees. A standup at the start of the workday, a conversation over lunch, or adding to another meeting with the right mix of attendees. Usually the less formal the meeting, the more free people will feel to share their thoughts.
4. Develop the Process
Choose an idea generation method that suits your team’s working style. Whether it’s a simple brainstorming session, a structured design sprint, or using tools like sticky notes or a smart board, the method should facilitate open communication and idea organization. Use feedback from visitors or leverage site analytics to inform ideas and decisions, if available. The right process will help your team feel comfortable and engaged, leading to more productive and creative outcomes.
5. Make it Last
Consider a kickoff meeting as the start of an ongoing collaborative effort. Encourage your colleagues to reflect on the discussion topics and reconvene after a few days to share new insights or refine existing ideas. Building a culture of open communication is key to maintaining momentum. Regular meetings and updates will keep everyone informed about progress, ensure alignment with the objectives, and allow for adjustments as needed.
Ideally this is the beginning of a longer term project to collaborate with your team. Your colleagues may benefit from a few days to dwell on the topics covered, and reconvene at a later time to weigh new feedback. Foster a culture of open communication. Encourage regular meetings and updates to keep everyone informed about progress and any changes in the plan.
6. Part of Your Company DNA
Meetings are great for alignment, but ask anyone after hours whether they like meetings and you’ll hear otherwise. Beyond just holding meetings, work towards creating a culture where feedback and collaboration are a regular part of your team’s workflow. This involves not only encouraging regular updates and check-ins but also creating an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. A collaborative culture leads to better teamwork, higher morale, and ultimately, more innovative solutions.
Beyond the Website
The benefits of bringing everyone together go further than just the website. These days, everyone has had experience interacting with websites, and can therefore readily provide feedback on yours. Involving various business teams fosters collaboration and communication between departments. This can break down silos and create a more harmonious working environment where teams understand each other’s needs and work together towards shared objectives.
In a similar vein, team members from different backgrounds may bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. Their unique insights can lead to the identification of untapped opportunities and innovative solutions that enhance the website’s overall effectiveness. This collaborative approach ensures that your website remains dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs and preferences of your audience, ultimately driving sustained engagement and success.
Post Launch
Remember that involving your business teams in the web design process is an ongoing endeavor. Continuously seek their input and feedback even after the website is launched. User needs and business goals may evolve over time. Ongoing feedback from different teams can provide invaluable insights into areas for improvement and optimization, improving the value your site adds to your business. By fostering a collaborative environment, you can create a website that truly represents your brand, engages your audience, and achieves the desired outcomes for your business.
Furthermore, fostering an ongoing collaborative environment cultivates a sense of ownership and investment among your teams in the success of the website. Encourage ongoing dialogue and brainstorming sessions to explore innovative ideas and strategies for enhancing the user experience and achieving business objectives.
By integrating input from marketing, sales, customer support, and other departments, you can ensure that the website effectively communicates your brand identity, resonates with your target audience, and ultimately contributes to the overall growth and success of your business. Embracing this culture of collaboration not only leads to a more robust and impactful web presence but also strengthens team cohesion and alignment towards shared goals.
