“Go west, young man” – A favorite saying of the nineteenth-century journalist Horace Greeley, referring to opportunities on the frontier. Another dictum of the time period was that of Manifest Destiny (the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continent was both justified and inevitable). These days the expansion onto the internet should be viewed in a similar manner.
Among web professionals, Web development usually refers to the entire site build, minus the design aspects of the project. We are not of the same opinion. Instead, we view all potential projects as turnkey operations – much like we accomplished throughout our careers in the chemical engineering world in which we were fully engaged in complex turnkey operations.
From our observations, too many web developers seem to specialize in one or two aspects of the project build, and neither one seems to be in communication. The thought in the last decade was to place a Project Manager in between the client and the web developers. That is fine if the lines of communication between PM and client are excellent. If not, it adds even more to the inefficiencies of a typical project build.
What we have found by introducing a Client Liaison, (someone that is: technical – can talk across all aspects of a build with a client, pays attention to detail with a sense of urgency and has excellent communication skills) we have improved the efficiency of the project build tremendously.
Typically, a potential client (referred to as a Product Owner) will speak with a Project Manager. The PM is assigned to conduct the initial interview. If the PM concludes that there exists a match between the client’s goals and timeline with that of the web development team’s ability and current schedule, the project is then turned over to a Client Liaison. The CL has the key role of identifying specific wants and needs of the client through one-on-one, as well as, team meetings. Depending on the client’s product build, the development team can vary, but typically it involves: Requirement Analyst, UI/UX Designer, Web Developers(Front-End Developer, Back-End Developer, Full Stack Developer if available) and QA Engineer.
It is the role of the Client Liaison to train the Product Owner’s admin staff on how to interact with the new site. This usually involves a Content Management System or CMS which is an application that is used to manage web content, allowing multiple contributors to create, edit and publish to the site. The project is considered successful only when the Product Owner (in addition to acquiring the web presence they had originally envisioned), feels completely at ease in the site’s day-to-day operation going forward.
Website development is one thing, its promotion is completely another. Much like the need for a website development team to create and launch a site from scratch, there also exists a need for digital marketers who can help get visible results. It’s especially true if the site sells goods or services as there usually exist an enormous number of competitors and they will need to stand out from the rest. Promotion of the site is the responsibility of a Digital Marketing Team which consists of the Client Liaison, SEO Specialist and Marketing Strategist.
From simple static sites to API fed, dynamic database driven applications, we efficiently create your vision. And as a bonus, what we have yet to elaborate on, is what we are best at – affording our clients a significant Visual Design advantage over their competitors.
