The corporate website was a subject of organizational embarrassment at DSI. Senior managers believed that it was a factor in their difficulty hiring technology workers for their JD Edwards practice. The VP of Solutions Development asked me to serve as Project Manager assigned to the VP of Marketing to develop a new website. The VP Marketing wanted to do two things: first, get something up on the web that she preferred to what was already there; and then to do a full blown site development project. We adopted an approach of developing the message first, then trying to identify user scenarios -- what are they looking for? What do they already know? -- then defining navigation and content based on a combination of those user experiences.
Biggest business challenge: getting consensus on content and message. Every vice president had a veto, but many would not attend discussion meetings or offer any positive input. We put strawman sites together and solicited comment, asked for them to cite comparables and offered some to them. Still, it was common for us to receive no feedback until after the deadlines, when they would only offer negative comment. Each time through this process the message became a bit clearer, the eventual site design became a bit more definite, and the buy-in grew. Another business problem was getting resource. There were some very talented web designers on staff, but they weren't made available for development work on this project. We were able to get their input and insight, and that was very useful.
Biggest technical challenge: it became clear that DSI would need a content management application to manage the website in the long term. The days when a firm can launch static brochure-ware are gone, and many people in the organization have to contribute content for a working website. It became clear that the initial design would only last for a limited time, and that DSI would be forced to go to another hardware and software platform to fit their image of an innovative technology company.
Buzzwords: Flash, HTML, Photoshop, Visio, Website design.