Serious Conversations about Content Development

Nice Q&A about the William & Mary web presence overhaul at the mStonerblog:

Highlights for me:

How did you manage internal communications?
“In a nutshell, we had a philosophy of transparency and a communication plan (we wrote it down!).

…One of the reasons campus communication was essential to our effort was the need to secure buy-in from the graduate and professional schools at W&M. We hoped that these decentralized units would want to be a part of re.web; we wanted their participation without an edict from the provost.

Biggest surprise?
..Actually, a big surprise to us was that most people focus on the technology of their website instead of their content. Everybody wants to talk about how the CMS will work, what can be done to save their effort, why they can’t have more whiz bang, and when the search will improve… But having a serious conversation about content development is viewed as an unmentionable – an annoyance, and sometimes an after thought.”

Finish this sentence: I’m so glad that …
… we publicly announced the launch date.

We publicly announced our July 31 launch date on April 2.  For the seasoned project managers out there, this is a no brainer.  Nothing keeps you in line more than a deadline. And as you get to the end game, you need the deadline to help you prioritize and make the hard decisions. When you have unlimited time, you are more likely to have an elastic scope