The Engagement 4Cast
Ensuring that your project’s success is about more than just enlisting a team with top tier design and programming skills, it’s also about keeping a project on time and in scope.
Some projects are quick and easy, while others are large complex affairs with many moving parts, critical paths and stakeholders to satisfy. But no matter what size project you have, it’s okay; 4Site has done them all and lived to tell the tale!
To help you navigate the waters of complex projects, we’ve put together some suggestions on what you can do to ensure the success of your 4Site project.
Keeping It Simple Lesson 1: Know Your Strategy (or, what do you want?)
Every good project starts with a kick-off meeting to scope out the requirements and to establish the client’s wants, interests and needs. As the client, you should define those requirements for yourself, even at a high, basic level, as soon as possible.
You won’t be on your own though. During the kickoff meeting, 4Site will sit down with you and go through a customized client intake questionnaire that helps us have an efficient discussion about your:
Keeping It Simple Lesson 2: Documentation (or, write it down so you don’t forget.)
While the things that get said in a meeting sound great, what really matters is what we document for our goals, requirements and next steps. If it’s not documented, it’s easy to forget, attribute and overlook.
That’s why every meeting with 4Site has the meeting minutes documented in our online project management system called Redbooth. (Typically, we document the meeting in “real-time” so you can review them right away).
We use Redbooth to record meeting agendas and update those agendas with the meeting minutes and action items. We then create tasks and assign them to the relevant owner – whether it’s a 4Site staff member or a member of the client team – so that the necessary next step can be taken.
Keeping It Simple Lesson 3: Identify Stakeholders (or, who does what).
When we start a project, identifying the client’s key stakeholders and points-of-contact is of utmost importance. Who is the business owner? Who is responsible for technical questions and content questions? Who has the final sign-off on features and functionality? Identifying the right people at the start of the project is critical for success.
These key owners are identified collectively during the kickoff meeting and, with each feature that is built, the completed task is assigned to those key stakeholders to review, provide feedback and approve.
Ultimately, it’s critical to have a point person that has final sign-off responsibility for functionality and content. Too many decision-makers all trying to make decisions never works.
Keeping It Simple Lesson 4: Manage Effectively (or, why Redbooth matters)
We love Redbooth at 4Site – mainly because we love projects that are organized. Plus, Redbooth provides complete transparency for our clients, offering an instant view of project status, down to the task level. We want our clients to feel comfortable logging into Redbooth to review items, ask questions and provide us with information and feedback.
Redbooth is made up of tabs that offer incredibly useful features to manage a project successfully:
From start to finish, Redbooth helps 4Site execute successful projects, and provides clients with a transparent view into the 4Site development process and offering an efficient collaborative workflow between client and 4Site staff.
Want to work with 4Site and use Redbooth on your next successful project?
Contact us today to get started.
4Site Interactive Studios is a talented troupe of web professionals who are passionate about creating tools to support digital marketers. We love to hear from our community! Reach out to us with your thoughts and questions. And don’t forget to subscribe below to get notified when we post new blogs – no spam, just content👍🏼
Subscribe & stay ahead of the crowd with sage marketing tips and predictions.