Understanding Your Project Before You Start

UNDERSTANDING YOUR PROJECT BEFORE YOU START

——————————RESEARCH & DISCOVERY PHASE

James Tryon, Creative Director WP Valet

“MEET & GREET”

INTERNAL MEETING AFTER “MEET & GREET”

• Review notes in an internal meeting with your team.

• Review Client Questionnaire

• Review Client’s Site

• Review Client’s Creative Brief/RFP (if they have one)

• Review Competitors

• Basic Brand Analysis

• If we determine we’re a good fit, our team will recommend next steps to client.

CLIENT QUESTIONNAIRE LINKS

• Logoshttp://easilyamusedinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/easilyamused-questionnaire-branding.doc

• General http://easilyamusedinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/easilyamusedquestionnaire.doc

• *The above links are old. Please review and update your own.

NEXT STEPS…

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY DOCUMENTING

• R&D can be as small as 1/2 day of Discovery and 1/2 day of document writing. (1 day)

• R&D can span weeks, depending on the complexity of the project.

• R&D is invaluable in project planning & organizing.

HOW TO DO RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

CLIENT QUESTIONNAIRE

• Can be given to clients right after the “Meet & Greet”.

• Before Research & Discovery starts, a client may be asked to fill this out.

• It gives us a chance to really hear their feelings, and then we can make sure we address their concerns.

• Valuable for re-branding or new projects.

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN AN AUDIT?

• Analysis of client’s site & audience.

• Vision, scope, and planning to achieve specific goals.

• Detailed list of requirements & tasks.

• Site maps, estimates on tasks, client’s budget & timeline.

• Recommendations for improving ROI.

• UX/UI direction for how things should be set up.

TEAMWORKWe work as teammates with our clients. This includes: - Daily stand-up meetings.- Open communication.- Transparent reporting.

We define full scope and vision of the project together.

We works in an Agile fashion to make sure our clients’ needs are addressed & most important features are constantly prioritized.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY MEETING

WHAT TO COVER IN YOUR MEETING…

• Identify Items that Need Internal Research

• Goal Planning

• Define Target Audience

• Write Users Stories

• Competitor Analysis

• Information Architecture

• Project Audit

• Content Strategy - Basic

OPEN THE FLOODGATESThe sky’s the limit in this meeting and is used to spark creativity and get everyone involved in the project motivated.

Do a group brain-dump. Anything and everything that you could ever want, we just write it down. Then we sort all of them into 3 piles.

1) Needed2) Nice to have3) Cool but not really needed now.

WHO’S YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND WHY

Personas •late 50’s blue collar worker with limited computer use

•Tired single Mother very busy and very tired

•car accident victim looking for pain relief

Facts • in pain so kinda agitated

• it might hurt to use the mouse

• older demographic

Thoughts • need large buttons to help with clicking

• very direct messaging to limit on confusion

• Too much text / cluster could be overwhelming

USER STORIES

USER STORY EXAMPLE

“As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>”

“As a customer representative, I want to search for my customers by their first and last name to find the customer faster.”

QUESTIONS TO ASK

These are excellent questions to ask during your Research & Discovery Meeting.

MEETING QUESTIONS#1: Problem Statement What problem do you want to solve?                                         #2: Stakeholders Who do you answer to? Who is involved in this project?                                                 #3: Users Who are you users?

#4: Risks What risks are we afraid of? What is worst case scenario?

MEETING QUESTIONS#5: Assumptions

Examples: 1. Client will provide high quality videos in a timely fashion.2. Client will provide high quality photos in a timely fashion.3. Client will provide descriptions for products.4. Client will provide feedback on layout designs in a timely fashion.

#5: List of Features NOT to be developed if you're used a gateway, make sure the client knows you are not creating it.

NOW IT’S TIME TO WRITE!

WHAT’S IN A PROJECT AUDIT?

• Page outlining any new features sections not on current site

• list any possible or key plugins

• Page for extra Ideas

• List of possible templates needed for theme

• Explanation of how Project Management will be handled.

SECTIONS OF YOUR AUDIT

• list of Overall Goals

• list any Client Feedback

• Problems with Current site

• Define target Audience

• Current Navigations

• New Site Map (this evolves as we uncover needed functionality)

• Question everything

• Review every page

• Review every section

PROJECT AUDIT PER PAGE/SECTION• list page title and url

• Goals of the page

• Current feature list

• New Feature list

• Current Problems

• Solution per section and/or page

• Feedback from client

• Wish list/backlog/Nice to Haves

• Design feedback

• Other Notes - Any random ideas per page and section

• Client To Do’s per page and sections

LIST OF TEMPLATES NEEDED

Home Locations ◦ archive ◦ category ◦ tag ◦ Show single

Events ◦ archive ◦ category ◦ tag ◦ single event

• blog ◦ archive ◦ category ◦ tag ◦ single post

• Team directory • 404 • Single page • search results

DISCUSS POSSIBLE CONTENT STRATEGIES

How and when to use tags and categories, along with a starter list of rules when making new category and tag.

- What Custom Post Types does the project need- What Taxonomies does the project need- What Parent Categories to start with.- Along with setting a game plan for growth.

PHASE #2Things currently out of scope.

OVERALL RECAP THOUGHTSAnd All The Other Things

Trello

RESOURCES CREATED• Brain dumps

• Sorted feature list

• Define Goals / user stories

• Create user stories

• Define target Audience

• Site map

• Basic wire frames(paper)

• Lots of sketching

• Stockholder Interviews

• Talk about inspiration

• Basic guides for colors

• Basic guides for layout

• Assigned Client Tasks

• Start content gathering

• Compile assists

• Tickets

THANK YOU ;C )james@thewpvalet.comhttp://thewpvalet.com

@jamestryon