Digital transformations and website rebuilds aren’t part of an organization’s day-to-day operations. Still, they likely sit far outside the scope of nonprofits’ everyday work. But that’s okay. There are people who do these projects everyday—and I’m one of them!
Here at Constructive, we’ve seen website rebuilds open up organizations to new regions of the world. We’ve made understanding local air pollution accessible to drive policy changes. We’ve transformed how an organization that aids millions of girls and women interacts with its audience online.
Taking on a website rebuild project or a digital transformation is well worth the time and effort. In my experience as a project manager, I’ve learned some best practices for what it takes for organizations and agencies to glide through these intensive but exciting projects.
One key to success: Assembling a web or digital dream team. To drive a website rebuild or digital transformation, an organization needs to considerately assemble the internal team they want working on the project. That might mean looping people from outside of your immediate team or working outside the box of your own day-to-day operations.
Building the right team for these time- and thought-intensive projects is crucial but do-able, so let’s dive in.
What is a website rebuild or digital transformation?
First, let’s get some definitions cleared up.
A website rebuild is exactly what it sounds like: it’s the process of rebuilding an organization’s website, often but not always from the ground up.
A digital transformation on the other hand is both a website overhaul plus the integration of digital technologies into all aspects of an organization’s operations, processes, and business models.
Both projects tend to drive growth, innovation, and efficiency. They also play a foundational role in carrying your organization’s brand into the future. A new website or digital ecosystem will empower your organization to build on your goals and aspirations, all while expanding your impact.
With so much at stake, you’ll likely need to build a cross-functional team with representatives from different parts of the organization—teams like operations, senior leadership, technology—to ensure that all perspectives are considered. Unfortunately, sometimes teams are built in silos and key decision-makers or perspectives get left behind until it’s too late.
Some Avoidable Mistakes
Missed deadlines, bump ups, extra rounds and revisions, conflicting feedback. “Plan for what is difficult while it is easy,” rings true here. Missteps early on can lead to big hiccups in the later stages of a project.
Let’s talk about some common, avoidable mistakes.
1. Only including your Marketing and Communications team
Usually, digital transformations and website rebuilds are driven by an organization’s communications team. But in these transformational projects, you don’t have to go it alone.
It’s okay to take on new responsibilities that you’re excited about, but it’s important to measure your expectations and realistically assess your experience. For example, if you’re a communications strategist, it might be difficult to learn about back-end web development on top of your other everyday responsibilities. You know your strengths and knowledge gaps, and there’s a pretty good chance you know those of your team, too. So be sure to loop in colleagues who have the necessary background to make a project run smoothly.
Depending on the scope of your team and of the project, it’s extremely beneficial to loop in key members of your organization across different departments and teams, such as technology, operations, executive leadership, and more. Cross-functional teams are a key component of a successful project because they bring together diverse perspectives, facilitate collaboration, promote agility, and prioritize user-centered design.
2. Choosing a point of contact (POC) without decision power or internal leverage.
It’s normal to have a primary POC serve as a coordinator between an agency and an organization. However, if the POC is the only liaison between the agency and the organization, things might get complicated. Here are some scenarios where I’ve seen this dynamic go wrong:
- Scenario 1: An agency presents a design to an organization’s POC who then needs to present that design to their internal team.
- Where it breaks down: Decision makers or stakeholders can’t directly ask questions to the designers and don’t understand why decisions have been made.
- Scenario 2: An organization’s POC lacks the leverage to gather decision makers’ feedback or approval and has to make decisions on their own.
- Where it breaks down: A POC might approve something that hasn’t been approved or even seen by key decision makers. Later down the line, the project is stalled to retroactively right a wrong turn.
Solutions: Setting Your Website Rebuild Team up for Success
The problems we went through above are easily avoided. Here’s how you can stop them before they stop you.
1. Personnel mapping
You can start assembling a team by mapping out the personnel you’ll need to loop in for various different parts of the project. For example, if you’re thinking about a new website’s communications emphasis, that will probably involve the head of your communications team. When it comes to digital integrations, it’s probably going to require your technology team.
There are different ways to make these maps, one that we love here at Constructive is the RACI matrix, which stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed.
A key part of personnel mapping includes determining more than someone’s job title, but adding different titles that correspond to the project at hand. Who are the decision-makers? Who are the blockers? Who needs to be CC’ed on big decisions? Who outside of your team needs to be involved and when?
Mapping out your organization’s personnel will help you assemble the best team possible to keep your project on track.
2. Identify subject matter experts
Remember that problem of wearing too many (and maybe even some strange) hats during a project? Well we have a solution and it starts with the best policy: honesty.
Be honest with yourself about the expertise of colleagues within your organization and within your team—and within your own capabilities. Don’t be scared to identify knowledge or experience gaps, you can even consult your agency partner on who within your organization might need to get involved at different points in a project.
While this might be your first or second time doing a project like this, agencies do it every day. They want you to succeed and they’ll work with you to make sure that you have the experts you need looped in to drive your project forward.
Subject experts are just that—experts. This project is bigger than you and probably bigger than your team alone. Don’t be afraid to pull in people outside of your communications team to maintain smooth sailing.
3. Determine capacity for regular check-ins
Once you’ve identified who you’ll loop into your project, the next step is to determine everyone’s capacity. You likely only know the bandwidth of your own team, so it doesn’t hurt to take time at the start of a project and figure out different teams’ busy seasons.
Let’s say you’ll only need to loop in your technology team during the second half of a project, but their participation will be absolutely critical. It’s worth communicating with them on the front end to make sure they can join for regular check-ins during that point of a project. And if you give everyone enough time to plan around their upcoming responsibilities, you’ll save yourself the headache of urgent status updates, absent decision-makers, or deadline delays.
Building Your Roster
The problems and solutions above are team building 101. They can take your colleagues from out-of-steam to dream team, and especially if you’re working within a very large organization, I have an example roster you can use as a guide.
Here are some of the key players you should determine, define, and include on your project:
- Project Manager/POC: Your project manager will be responsible for planning, executing, and monitoring the transformation project alongside the project manager of your agency partner. This person should coordinate the activities of the project team, keep everyone informed, and manage expectations. When you’re slotting someone into this role, you should carefully consider the level of decision-making power they hold.
- Executive Sponsor: An executive sponsor is a senior-level leader who has the authority and influence to drive the transformation forward. The executive sponsor provides strategic direction, secures necessary resources, and helps to overcome organizational resistance. They also have the ability to block the project or give critical green lights. And this person doesn’t necessarily have to be…a person. This role could also be fulfilled by a group of people or a board. And while the executive sponsor might not be in on every meeting with the agency, that’s where the POC can swoop in to present and liaison between the two.
- Technical Lead: A technical lead takes care of the technical aspects of the transformation, such as selecting and implementing technology platforms, managing data migration, and ensuring system integration. Think about the subject area expertise when you’re slotting this role.
- Business Analyst: A business analyst takes responsibility for understanding the organization’s business processes, identifying areas for improvement, and helping to design new processes that align with the transformation goals. They’ll play a big part in ensuring that your transformation advances your organization’s engagement and impact goals.
- Change Management Lead: A change management lead is responsible for managing the human side of the transformation, including identifying potential resistance to change, developing communication and training plans, and ensuring that employees are engaged and motivated throughout the process. One framework that we like here at Constructive is the Managing Complex Change model.
- Subject Matter Experts: Subject matter experts provide deep knowledge and expertise in specific areas that are impacted by the transformation. They likely come from different backgrounds and teams, such as marketing, finance, operations, or technology—but they’ll all bring great perspectives and value to your project.
Ready, set, plan!
So, now you’ve got the tools to assemble an amazing team, who will you call up?
And no matter who you bring into play, don’t forget that communication is key every step of the way. Building a strong team is the first step—next up is building a strong plan to keep every one of your players on track.
I’ve seen projects crumble under the pressures brought on by narrow teams, unrealistic expectations, and expertise mismatches. Even if you’re not an expert in engineering or digital integrations, you can be an expert team builder and drive the smoothest, most transformative web or digital project to make sure your organization can have an even stronger impact.
Thank you for taking the time to read me and please reach out if you have any questions!
