Record project history

Hey!

Hope you had a cool week-end guys! Today we'll talk about project history. You know, sometimes when you finish the website, the client suddenly says - "Why hasn't this been done? We've discussed it about two months ago!!!" - have you seen that? Do you remember what they said back then? No one can, I assure you.

So what's the smart choice? Set up a Google document named "project name history" where project name is yours. What do you have to write there? The document should look like this:

05.19.08 Finished the site - the client says it's cool
05.16.08 Called the client - they said to paint the top menu red
05.12.08 Had a weird dream - the client making cruel love to my brain. It hurt!

How can it help and why you need this? First of all, you can always check what the client really said two months ago. Second, you can't forget anything you promised to do or just re-invent some idea you had. And of course - it could help you have a reference date to search e-mails in your Inbox etc.

You can also add any data on the project that you think is appropriate - the more you document it, the better!

You can easily maintain such document, it is simple (and you should keep it simple), it doesn't take much time but saves a lot. So...

I command you to go out, set up a Google document and make the client happy NOW!

Fulfill your promises

It may sound too banal, but you must always fulfill your promises when working with a client. Sure, sometimes you've got more important things to do, but you should remember the following: If you don't pay him or her all of your attention - you will lose the client and access to his (and his friend's) money and other resources for EVER!

Here are some tips to make it easier to you:

• Develop a plan and follow it;
• Never abandon the plan;
• Don't indulge yourself;
• Call your calls and write your letters;
• Always create value for the customer.

Also you should always give even more value than you've promised - that will keep the client happy and make him or her suggest their friends use your services, developing your client circle.

Another nice thing it will do for you is that it will build up your will power. After you start doing what you should to take your business further, it will become easier over time. You just have to make this first step.

Remember, any road begins with the first step anyway!

Check the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Strong vs easy solutions

Hey there! Thanks for visiting ManageSite!

Today we'll speak about making decisions. You cannot argue that you have to solve problems once in a while. What's interesting is that there are often several solutions for each problem and it's up to you to choose one and only one of them. Each time you decide whether the solution suits your goals or not - that's the difference.

There are mostly 2 kinds of decisions:

1. Easy decisions;
2. Strong decisions.

What is the difference between strong and simple decisions then?

Easy solutions solve the moment's problems. For example, the easy solution for coping inflation would be print more money, however all of us know that's not a solution at all and will only help for a short period of time.

Strong decisions, however, are not so evident, not so cheap (compare building a whole new economic program with printing more money!) and often not so fast. But the key difference about them is that they will work for a long time (if not for life)

- for example if a country refines its economic policies, the effects in the long run will be much more visible and sensible. In fact, such decision will bring a whole new life to the project!

Why strong decisions are better? Because you won't have to mend what's bad in them afterwards, which could draw away your time, energy and money (check out Simpleology for that) If you are patient enough, these bring you closer to the goal than easy solutions do.

When making decisions, always think of long-term consequences. What will it bring? How can you use this solution later and save on it? For example, some web design studios develop their own CMS (Content Management System) solutions and later sell it to their clients or other studios instead of going the easy way and using an open-source or other free or cheap software.

A good solution pays off for a while, not just this one time.

So again, don't think of the immediate outcome only - think strategically, see how your decision what solution to use affects your whole life, everything you do.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

No more than 3 designs, please!

Hi guys!

Today's topic is web design management again. Some (if not most) of the clients prefer to eat your brain out and make you develop as many design variants as possible (up to 50 designs in my experience which is the absolute maximum, though this particular client payed for each and every of them!) It's a very time-consuming thing and it really sucks out your design team's resources and ideas and exhausts guys mentally.

To avoid this, you can use several tactics:

- Write the number of designs in your contract (which is best) - I strongly suggest the number isn't more than 3;
- Take payment in advance;
- Special tactics, described in detail below.

I guess the two first ones are basically to simple to explain (yet very effective nonetheless) so I'll go straight to the special tactics.

Ask your lawyers to prepare a contract for you with the following trick: there will be three (3) different design versions, but you have to present them to the client one by one. If the client doesn't like the first one, he or she signs an additional agreement saying he no longer wants it and it belongs to you. Same for the other two. Anyway, prepayment is yours.

If the client doesn't like any version at all but decides to choose one of them later, he'll have to buy it back! This way the client will be much more careful when choosing a design and in most cases (around 90%) choose the first one!

This know-how will literally save you thousands of dollars. No kidding!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

How to save on office software

Hey guys!

Today we'll speak about saving money again. What most companies spend on most of all? Right, management and formalities. Collaboration software is one of these major things everyone spends on. Be it Microsoft Exchange Server or Lotus Notes, companies big and small spend thousands of dollars on e-mail systems. That sucks!

How can you save here? Use the power of internet! There are virtually hundreds of on-line collaboration tools and services, both paid and free. You can do a quick search on the topic and you will understand what I'm talking about.

Now after looking a little closer at the search results you can quickly realize that you don't even have to pay for these. Yup, you heard it right. No money required at all.

The best solution that works for me to date is Google Docs. You must have noticed that document samples for this project are shared via this service, too. Why is that? Simple! Why spend megabucks buying something that's free? At Google Docs you can have as many documents as you like. Together with check-box style sharing it's a very cool on-line service. Here are some more advantages it gives:

• Stable hosting (I actually saw the service being slow for only a couple times during two months)
• It's rapidly gaining the same features as the off-line suites like Microsoft office - Google is probably the richest internet-company on the planet so they experience no problem with funding at all.
• It even boasts some neat features never before seen in other office applications like recently added ability to include YouTube videos into Powerpoint'esque presentations
• You can save the documents for off-line use in Office and PDF formats and even synchronize them with the server, speaking of which...
• ...any on-line system of that kind is much more reliable than a usual one installed on personal computers) - you don't depend on the equipment itself, and if a colleague is ill or out for coffee it doesn't mean you can't get access to a document. That's really cool - I've been in such situations all the time before as probably have you yourself!
• They have a wishlist for new features to be added. Now imagine you ask Microsoft to add something. Yeah, I know. Wait 5 years till our next version comes out. And who mentions beloved MS bugs? )))
• ...and much more (they add value for free all the time!)

What's my point? Using on-line software at no cost at all can even save you money on hard disk drives and even on system administrator time - remember, all of these have to be configured and Google Docs does not!

Another advice is that you should always look for ways to save when doing business. Remember the two single objectives of any company that help earn big money?

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Infodesign vs Promodesign

Hello!

First of all, good to see a growing number of you guys subscribe to our RSS feed! That's so cool to see (and don't forget this blog is just several weeks old)! I guess it indicates that many of you are interested in what I've got to say, and that's very pleasant. Now let's go straight to today's lesson contents.

There are basically two design types and two approaches to their management (accordingly) - namely infodesign and promo-design.

Now what's the difference between them?

Infodesign's purpose is favorable information presentation, while promodesign's main purpose is image pumping.

When are these two suitable? You should clearly use the first one when creating a site with lots of information (newspapers, on-line magazines, content portals etc.) and the second in cases when you don't have much information and have to attract the user by appearance, not the text itself (promo-sites for new products, portfolios, design portals etc.)

Think of it like the difference between modern glass-and-concrete architecture and classic one.

Of course sometimes you have to mix both approaches, but that's not so difficult as most site's templates fall into one of these two categories. But hey! Haven't you seen buildings combining the two styles together? Looking both classic and modern?

Anyway, what this (in general) requires from us as managers is two different ways of thinking, two different approaches.

Infodesign should be simple, minimalistic, accessible, focused on information. The starting point here should be your goals. Promodesign, in contrast, should be colorful, vivid, figurative and utilize one's imagination and start from a creative brief.

Why am I telling you this? You can use these simple guidelines to evaluate and guide the work of your design team to save time and therefore reduce website production costs.

Don't forget the main rule from "Save the pixels": in design never use more resources than needed, or it will only harm your presentation and lead to more confrontation with the client. From my experience, simple designs are sold easier. There are certain tricks like the fact that designs with photographic imagery of young girls sell better to the vast majority of male customers but that's it: keep it simple! (remember the KISS principle!)

Your designers may think of them as artists but you should always remember (and remind them!) that design is a form of art dead without emphasis on the information it's meant to communicate.

Check out tomorrow's "Smart new way to save on collaboration software" hint for more useful tips on website project management that will save and even earn you money! Also check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Two main goals of any business

Hey guys and welcome to managesite!

Today we'll talk about two main (and only) business goals. What are they?

Your business will be successful if (and when) you:

• reduce costs (yours or the client's)


• reduce operation time (yours or client's again!)

Yes, it's that simple! It took me several years to figure these two out until I attended a seminar on innovation management. Many guys were speaking but that one guy was talking as a preacher: he wasn't boring, he was brief and he taught me this wonderful idea. He met the two goals himself - everybody held their breath listening to him! (the seminar lasted for several days and we had enough boring-speaking wise old gentlemen)

You should judge everything you do from a perspective of time and costs effectiveness to stay in touch with your business objectives. Don't forget -

Your client judges and chooses you by them!

That may seem like a very simple thought but again - you should take it seriously: it's a pathway to success. Why? Because these two gauge any business' effectiveness!

Hope you find this mini-hint useful! Stay tuned!

Give them options to exclude

Hi guys and welcome to ManageSite!

Today we'll talk about choice illusions. No, really, a good manager is a bit of illusionist at the same time. We've already talked about illusion of choice - it's one of management (and sales) cornerstones today.

Now how to make up such an illusion? Simple, as everything in our technology. Just propose much much more! You see, the trick here is that the client will want to exclude some options concerning their price, time costs and other factors. Thus a good tactic here will be to give him many less useful options to exclude among vitally important ones.

A natural question you can ask here is what to do if the client tries to exclude something really important. Well, if handled properly, you will never face such a situation.

Just divide the given variants into two groups: basic and extras. Like forums, shoutboxes and stuff. You know - all these things noone will be ready to pay for.

The client will see you as almost all-powerful :) Don't forget that the client doesn't know anything about websites in 95% of cases - they see it as a service - never forget it! They don't know how sites are made, how all the features are crafted etc. They pay you for the knowledge.

I call it the "check-box approach" - the client can form a rate that suits his plans and goals. You must always look like you can do much much more (that's a powertool actually)

The bottom line: Give the client deliberately more options than he can permit himself.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Who's in charge

Hey guys!

Today's we'll talk about competence.

Imagine a very common situation: you work on a site for a client, their representative is all happy about it and you're almost there - but... his boss comes out and says you've got it all wrong, which you former best friend on the client's side now repeats as a damn mantra. You can never make a design to fit two or more people's tastes so you;ll most likely have to do everything from scratch. Real pain in the ass, isn't it?

Let's put it straight: each and every one of us has been in such a situation! Now how can we handle this? Simple, as all ingenious solutions are! Just put someone in charge!

"On the client's side?" - you can say - "How?" Easy, my friend, easy :) Ready to learn the great secret of the masters? Okay, here it is: ask this question ("who will be in charge of the project on your side?") from the very beginning of the relationship with the client. They will have to choose a person and delegate the competence to him or her so that you will not have to care about this problem any more.

There are, however, some cases where they will answer with the names of 2 or even 3 persons in charge. Don't be confused by this! Just ask who's the boss among them and deal with him. I even recommend you put this person's name into all project documents (Requirements Specifications, Contact Reports etc.) As they say over here - you are nothing without a paper and a man with one :)

Why do you need to focus on this? That simple hint can save you a huge lot of trouble - I personally had been in situations like that for several times and beleive me - I had to be really sly to dodge all bullets.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

How to write a contact report

Hi guys!

Today we'll discuss one of the classic project management tips - writing contact reports.

What's that? Generally a special document covering all the topics discussed during phone & conference calls and real life meetings.

What do we need it for? As all documenting: to eliminate all these misunderstandings big or small after the job is done.

Imagine a real-life situation: you've done all the programming and now the client says that you forgot something you talked about at a meeting three months ago. Okay, now who's right or wrong? What should you do? Nobody knows.

When instead you have a contact report, verified by the client (you have to send them both to your boss and client not more then 1 day after the meeting, except week-end situations) you just pull it out of your pocket, read it and sing aloud "hallelujah!" with your whole team :)

Now what do you have to include? Let's check it out:

• Date (as on all documents - it's important!);
• Topics discussed;
• Agreements you've come to;
• Author (on your side)
• Who checked it (on the client's side)
• Version (in case of any remarks you get from the client upon reading the first version you sent to them)

What's in it for you? Is it simple? Yes. Can it save you trouble, time and money? Definitely. Is it worth the time spent? Sure! Check out the site for a free contact reports sample somewhere next week!

Take payment in advance

Hi guys and welcome to ManageSite!

Today's hint is all about money. You can remember the song (oh you know this one) and sing it along as you read :)

Well, the first thing you have to remember is that you have to charge you client for everything though you may and should give him or her discounts.

You have to because it builds trust and connection as famous seducers like BadBoy or Mystery would say. Why is that? Why? Well, it's a matter of simple psychology. You see, if the client gives you something (anything! It may be as little as 20% in fact) he invests into interaction with you. It's a start.

My point here is that once you start to pay for your credit you can't stop and just say: "I've had enough, I don't need what you sell!" Your client is the same way.

Me and my business-partner once tried a special scheme "signup for techsupport and site promotion and get the site for free" - and it didn't work. Analysis showed that such offers are perceived as traps, the client's mind tells him "nothing is for free, buddy!" and he doesn't give it a shot. The lesson we learned after this experiment is that you definitely should use giveaways, but not give away too much or the offer seems to good to be true (even when it actually is the case)

What's here for you? Simple. By taking a small percentage of the payment you encourage the client to invest into the project immediately, thus strengthening your relations without spending a dime. Also, not working with payment in advance is a sign of professionalism - it implies you have more important things to do than grab any opportunity. Again, pickup-artists would call it "showing that you are not needy". Clients, even men, like it as much as women do.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info! Have fun during the week-end!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Realistic deadlines

Hey guys! Sorry for being a little late - was so busy with my projects! ))

Anyway, today we'll discuss a very important subject: deadlines and more importantly realistic and unrealistic ones.

When creating a time schedule (to use in the project or calculate the costs for the client or both) you frequently face the problem of realistic timing. Many people in the industry like to give their bosses "unreal" time costs just to look better, which in fact often jeopardizes the project as the whole timesheet starts to "float" towards complete cancellation. It is our job to minimize that risk at all (no, I didn't mean selling your children here) costs!

Here's a quick rule of thumb to keep it fast:

Whatever timing your production team members give you, multiply it at least x1,5 in your calculations depending on task type (1,5 for design & XTHML coding, 2 for content copywriting, 2-4 for programming, 2-5 for flash implementation depending on who you work with)

In my experience flashers are by far worst in terms of delivering their work on time. These are highly creative and thus not very punctional persons, who may be really cool guys in real life (they often are). Thus these folks have to be massively controlled and given additional chek-points and milestones for you to understands where it can go wrong.

Flash itself is a cool but rather... quirky tech, so they can come to a standstill untill they figure how to overcome another of its bugs. Yeah, there are bugs in flash, too!

Programmers are second evil because they oftentimes cannot estimate how long will it take to perform a task until they really dive in it. It can be a long long time in hell for you if you miss this.
Hack: Try to give them as much incitial information as possible, especially regarding any interaction with other data sources such as databases, on-line services etc.

Copywriters' and designers' work is typically much shorter (unless you are working on a MMORPG or some other portal with lots of neat graphics to work on) that they are the most used to streamline production. That's why they are often better with keeping deadlines though you still cannot totally leave control.

In any case, you have to look closely into all steps of the development process to really keep in touch and understand how timing is formed there. It takes some time to understand all the little details of the whole but once you're there you become a much better website development manager.

Why should you be interested in how it all works instead of just asking the professionals for their timing? Because they often cannot estimate it right. So you have to always evaluate it yourself. If you are ahead of timing, have a break, test the site for more bugs, tell about it to your customer in a happy voice or ask him for additional sum for that. It's up to you guys!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info! Have fun during the week-end!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Writing letters

Hey guys and welcome to ManageSite for more tips and tricks on web development management!

Our today's hint is all about writing letters to your clients, letters that sell. No, I'm not talking about e-mail scam here, what I'm talking about is the letters you write to present your ideas, work and other client communication.

Here are some things you have to keep in mind writing these:

• The client has a limited time and attention span
• He or she wants to see facts, not your "I think that..."s
• They need multiple choices to maintain control over you work.

What does that mean to us? Let's break it down in order of appearance!

1. Limited time and attention span.

Well, the recommendation here is simple: Keep it simple and short. Use KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) if you like it. Don't add all these endless thoughts of yours etc. Business communication is all about information, not discussion in itself.

2. Facts, not "I think that..."s

Here's a psychlogical trick for you. Sometimes when you present changes (for example during design co-ordination) it's better to make a numbered list like this one:

1. Repainted and moved the logo as we agreed;
2. Added two more 150x150px advertising blocks to the right sidebar to increase advertising space;
3. Shortened the welcome tab text to make it more simple;
4. Replaced "medicine" with "healthcare" everywhere as you asked us to;
5. Repainted the right sidebar;
   
6. Added a horizontal ruler to divide the contents and the footer;
7. Added the copyright in the bottom.
   

Trick: If you have less then 6-7 lines here make it a bulleted list.

Trick: Notice how I used embedded justifying comments to the text so that it's still short but no line seems as if you have changed it without reason.

I haven't shared these with anyone before, but these have saved me so much time! Keep these lists simple and cool, break your ideas of what should be added to the sites in list form, too - such "feature lists" really a) sell and b) make up an image in the client's head so that he or she sees them instantly.

People tend to believe ordered information more then they would the same information if it was plain text. Why? Because they instantly notice how you have thought about it and consider you have a well-developed process which in turn works on your image and makes their decision-making much easier. Not to mention they choose whatever you want them to :)

3. Need for multiple choices to maintain control over you work

A client is always buying from you. All the time through the whole process of interaction. Always choosing whether to work with you from now on or not. So make it a constant sale. Sell yourself, your new products and extra ideas.

All salesmen (and women) in the world know the simple truth that once given a choice with multiple option, the client concentrates on choosing what's the best one for him, not arguing the existence of such a choice.

Remember the hint on experience management? So you should offer some decent variants with your comments on their pros and cons (adjusted to what you are going to sell to them, of course). Need practical example? Check this out:

Let's say you want your client to order a product catalog for his site ( a very common task in fact so that's real value). You can either say "we can make a product catalog on your site" which will not sell or come up with something like that:

"Okay, now that you have so many cool products on your site I strongly feel that we should incorporate a product catalogue or maybe even an on-line shopping solution so that the clients can shop for items right from your site. It's up to you to choose, but the difference in development and time between these is small and the latter could help you sell stuff and save (because all you'll spend on to sell via internet is shipping and handling). It can also give you some more audience to reach, too. "

Notice the suggesting and respectful tone of the whole communication and all possibilities layed out in front of the customer. It's like these shops when you come out and say hi to the visitor and show him all the cool goods you have for sale.

So how can these know-how's benefit you? First of all you save time on additional communication and arguments with the client. He or she sees the work, sees it in facts and sees your solutions to other problems that you can offer. You sell more and you interact with the client more, too. Simple, but pure gold!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info! Have fun during the week-end!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Positiff management core values

Hi and welcome!

Today we'll speak about philosophy. I'll cover it in more detail later but here are the core values of the Positiff website management system.

See, it's not just a set of working techniques - it's a whole philosophy.

Now what's so different about it? Well, this system is a set of core values, and incorporating these into your thinking will help you make decisions that benefit both you and your relations with the client. Unlike many systems, this one is compromise-targeted, we don't pull the blanket on one side: we try to cover both us and the client so to say (well, it's definitely not about sleeping with the client though some of our clients were sexy :) )

So what are these values I'm talking about today? Let's list them:

• Positive approach;
• Make the client your friend (again, it's not about being too close);
• Rationality and orientation towards goals;
• Speed;
• System approach;
  
• Constant improvement of product and services.

Well, you might say that any system incorporates these to some degree but the first one is really something that makes us stand out. Why? You know, several years ago right before the system creation I was reading one of Steven Hawking's books (you know, popular science books about black holes and worm-holes through time and matter) and came across something that rang a bell in my head.

This guy wrote that looking at the system from a realistic point of view was one thing and looking at it from a positivist view was another. I was fascinated! You know, how can you not be fascinated when someone who is almost completely disabled and chained to a wheel-chair by a severe desease (doctors told him many years ago that he'd live only 3 more years and he still does and writes beautiful books!!!) and still talks about positivity and even prepares for a space flight (and I actually hope he does fly to see the cosmos!)

So I thought about these words for a while and came up with Positiff management. You know, the concept that everything will really be okay even if it looks bad (think about how Steven is so popular despite his troubles!) gave me a whole new life. I mean it! I had troubles studying in university (which is considered rather prestigious and hard-to-study-in - it's a local analogue of MIT) but after realizing I'll overcome all this I really started to do well!

The very same idea rocked my business-life. One guy had told me long ago that a good designer is someone that you should wait in line to work with. It seemed like sci-fi for me at the time but as for now clients are actually waiting in a line to work with us!

Another important feature of our management, System Approach is nothing new but really gives you a powerful tool to overcome almost any trouble.

Again, Positiff management is less of a dogmatic model and more of a philosophy which gives you much more flexibility in everyday decision making. As my physics professor said, no model can 100% reflect the truth. Only philosophy can.

Skepticism is not cool, guys. If you aim at getting worst results possible and thinking from that - it will get you nowhere. Aim at being the best and win! There's a saying:

Aim at the skies and you get an eagle. Aim at an eagle and get a rock. Aim at the rock and get the ground. Aim at the ground and get nothing! So aim at the skies, God damn it!

Now... how will this benefit you? Stay realistic, but set high standards in everything. It may sound banal but think of all the examples I gave you above again. Aren't they vivid enough? What do you learn from them?

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Solve problems, not create them

Hey and welcome to managesite.blogspot.com!

Today's lesson is all about image again. Well, first of all - what does that mean - to solve problems? This isn't the same for you and for the client.

The trick here is that many studios give their clients some hard choices to make. that's wrong. When you give them options to choose from, try to balance them in a way that whatever one they choose it works.

Simply put: give them only enough decision-making to make them feel in control. The client has to feel he's in charge but you do all the management job. Working with you must be easy.

Here's a simple example: imagine you are a CEO of a large corporation. You've got two deputies, one of which just brings you the papers to sign and does the job himself and one who doesn't make a move without your sanction so that in fact you do your job and his. Whom will you fire to reduce costs? You got it!

There are two kinds of people on this planet: problem creators and problem solvers. Clients often choose to pay the latter. See, many professions exist only because sometimes it's easier to pay a professional to solve your problems instead of doing it yourself. Lawyers, dentists and garbage-cleaners get paid for that their whole life. Just because doing their job yourself could spend your time and maybe bring some more trouble to it.

Don't create obstacles and problems, destroy them! See every situation as an opportunity, not a problem!

That's what winners do all the time. That's what makes them that rich and powerful. They take responsibility and get paid for that. One of my friends often said:

A professional is someone who's cool at doing what others hate.

How can this benefit you? Just be the guy who solves problems and see how your clients multiply.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Manage the experience, not the project

Hi guys! Before we proceed to today's lesson, I've got an important announcement to make:

I'm building a list of future articles and I will soon add an article request form to the site so that you can ask me to cover topics that interest you the most.

Now that we're finished with this, let's talk about experience management!

Well, many managers make the same mistake over and over again: their project execution is virtually seamless but while they forget to manage the client's experience they lose customers even while the product is great. How come and what to do? We'll discuss it today.

First of all, what is experience management? That's really simple: imagine that you are a child and there are two candy shops in your local area, both offer the same candy but when you come to one of them , they just sell you the candy, grab the money and that's it. In the other one, however, they smile to you right from the door, remember your name and personal favorites and even give you some extra candy for no cost!

Now the big question is the following: which one will you bring your precious pocket money to? Obvious, isn't it? So here's the difference between just doing your job well and creating an outstanding experience. And for sure, your own clients will tell all their friends about you give them some extra candy for free.

What's really surprising - you will suddenly find it so much easier to make them agree to what you propose!

Why is that? It's simple psychology: if someone gives you more than you expected from the very beginning you grow to think subconsciously that he is doing that out of respect and/or keeps your best interests in mind. So you will naturally trust him more. See how it works?

So how's that - to manage the experience? Easy, in fact. Just don't stop selling! I don't mean you should speak with ad mottos, just scale it down a bit. Incorporate in your communication small pieces like "I've got great news for you", "we're working for you", "We'll try to make it ASAP" and other of this kind in your daily communication style. That works.

Don't ever say "we won't/can't do it" - either explain how much additional time/money it will take or lay out some other options in front of them. In fact, here's another clever psychological trick:

People tend to make a choice when given options, not argue the fact they have to make it at all.

Because all of us think "what's in it for me?". Yeah right, it's that simple.

Always try to show respect for client's needs and opinion, give him choice and outperform his/her expectations giving them some more stuff for free (be it your expertise, free banner design or a month of technical support to try it out). It's easy, cheap and will earn you more money.

The bottom line: create value for the customer where others take it. That will be a perfect bait for him to want more of your stuff!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Meet the team

Hi there and welcome! Let's begin this week with a nice fresh post, mkay?







Today we'll cover the following topics:

• How often should you meet the team?
• What should we discuss?
• How can you make them more productive and less boring?

Well, these seem like a lot of information but it's all quite simple if you take a closer look and use the system approach, which I never stop to preach =)

First of all, we suggest that you meet once a week. Choose a day (it better be monday or tuesday, not middle of the week) for such a meeting (sometimes these are called "status") so that everyone can plan it in their schedule. It's much more efficient if the whole team is present!

So, what should you discuss?

• Changes (what have you done since last meeting)
• Plans for the future (for guys to schedule them)
• Ideas and new technologies (to keep team members informed)
• Your corporate policies (for everyone to know them. This may seem of small importance but you shouldn't underestimate the power of corporate culture)

How to make these productive and not boring? Though team meetings are obligatory to attend they shouldn't be very formal. You must teach your people not to be late but you shouldn't make them feel like scholars at an exam. Relax and let everyone speak in his or her turn, say clock-wise or counter-clockwise.

You can take several techniques from Scrum - a very simple yet effective agile software development method (I suggest you read Scrum in 5 minutes - and it's easy and free!)

Here are some more productivity tips:

• Ask your team members to keep it short, like 5 minutes per member. That will keep the meeting;
• Keep documenting those meetings (maybe even record them on video so that those who missed them can watch'em and rewind the boring reports). That will also help you with discipline issues a bit but again don't make it too formal!
• Ask questions! It will keep you in touch with the team and make them feel the importance of each report;
• Write down all good ideas that you come up with;
  
• If you are brainstorming (more on that later in the course) don't let anyone kill any ideas - team members have to improve them, not just tell they are bad and why. "I'll tell you how to make it work" is always better then "now that's why it won't work" - remember that!

More of these will be added later, I suggest that you follow the updates.

So what's the use of team meetings? They help you and other team members keep in touch with the project's timing, development and other issues. Sometimes you will even get valuable feedback from team members not involved in the project in question. All of these and much more benefits will help you save time and share the project development experience with all team members.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Visitor portrait

Hey guys and welcome back to ManageSite!

Today's lesson is all about site visitors. Knowing who's going to visit your site when you finish the development is crucial to success and saves development time as it gives you the power to tailor your site exactly for the persons intended to visit it.

Now that we're clear with that, let's think what this portrait should look like. First of all, you need all sorts of statistical data you get your hands on:

• Age group (... to ... years)
• Gender (male/female)
• Marital status (Single/Married/Divorced/Widowed)
• Number of children (0...)
• Job/Student/something else
  
• Average income (per month/year)
• Targets when visiting the site
• Typical site usage scenarios (based on the previous one)
• Core goals in life (yeah, this one too)
• Likes, dislikes and other tastes
• Anything else you can get at this point from your customer, marketing studies or your own vision.
  

Now you must understand that if you have several groups of visitors (and oftentimes you do) you must fill in all the stats for each and every of them.

Is it enough to have this data to make decisions? Nope! Now that you have it, go take the next step - build personas on these, like "Joe Smith, 40 years old, owns a mechanical workshop... etc." - you get the idea.

Next you have to imagine yourself to actually be that person. Keep asking yourself questions like these:

• What would I behave like if I were this guy?
• What would I use the site for?
• What would I think like?
• How would I choose what I like on this site?
• What would be the easiest and most site structure and presentation for what I'm looking for?

These will help you to build a much more detailed vision of what you are going to create. In two words - these will help you build your Requirements Specifications (more on this here).

Why should I do this? Can't I just stick with my vision?
Oh, you can but it will be much closer to reality if you ask these to yourself. Certainly you shouldn't go crazy and become obsessed with emulating this personas but you sure have to visualize them and do it on paper (I prefer paper but you may as well choose Word or Google Docs or something like that. It's just that paperwork, including motoric memory is so much more effective for such things)

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Good design vs bad design

Hey! Welcome to managesite.blogspot.com!

Now today we'll speak of the differences that make website design good or bad. One could write a brick-thick book on that but here's what you've got to know as a webdev team manager:

• Good design meets goals (more on that here). It's not about illustrations or beauty or something. Believe me, I've worked as a lead designer and art-director for years now and that's what I learned the hard way. You don't have to make your own mistakes to learn this ))
• It's simple. Noone needs all these niceties and half-screen flash teasers and all this stuff. Noone except for design studio sites (and we're not talking about making a site for yourself here) needs to show off their drawing skills. Some more on simple design here;
  
• The site doesn't have to be stuffed with all kinds of things imaginable - it'd better have much space for the eye to rest on. Even if you've got lots of information;
• Every element has its purpose and is in the place;
• All information is clear to understand and easy to access. Now that the 3-click-rule is known to be false today (scientific study has proven that visitors that want to find something will do it anyway if they are totally into what the site has to offer) the clear access is a key feature. We can even say it's what web 2.0 is all about: good information presentation;
• Good design is tailored to the visitor's portrait (more on that in the tomorrow's hint)
• It must be SEO-ready (you can ask your partners who perform SEO optimization how to achieve this or just google it)
• Group information elements by their content. It comes from pre-historic print design and is still true. Menu here, news & coming products here, main contents there. You know.
  

So what's a bad design? A design in itself, a nice but useless collection of graphics, banners, headlines, all kinds of stuff that runs you mad in seconds.

The bad news is that everyone considers himself a designer and that includes you clients, too. So they will almost surely tell you and your designer that you should place green letters on red background, oh yeah, that's sad.

The good news, however is that you can always prove you point to the client if you do it right. Tell him or her what a good design is (see above) and make sure that he/she understands it. That will save you a lot of time. From my experience I can tell that about almost one third of the actual development cycle is spent on design and its approval.

Also make sure your design team understands these principles as well. Ask them questions to check out if they get it during the interview, or tell them about you vision during team meetings.

Most designers think of themselves as artists, though web design is more of a science including usability (oh it's good to have a usability expert in your team or if your designer has studied this) knowledge of trends, tools, technologies, XHTML coding (designers don't have to code themselves but they surely must think of coders when designing a webpage to avoid useless changes and compromises later).

That's why you have to be fairly democratic with them but nevertheless make your point that it's all about having the customer satisfied, not creating a stunning picture cool to look at but hard to find information in and not suitable for the web.

That being said you must listen to your designers in terms of what's good or bad but evaluate their work using the good design principles shown above.

So how can it profit you? Good design saves time and helps you satisfy the client better.

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful was this advice, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Analyze their goals

Hey guys! I've been working whole day so this one's a bit late to come out. Nevertheless, here it is with respect to the community!

One of the easiest concepts to understand for everyone managing a web development team is that you're working on a site that meets the client's goals, not what you would like it to be.

Please do not confuse your vision of the project with what you would like it to be. Now really, doing exactly what the client wants and needs from the initial start will take twice less time!

Well, the first question I'd have if I were you at this point would be "So how do I know exactly what he wants and needs?" Easy! First of all you have to figure out the customer's goals (use the creative brief for that - more on that here). Second - after you analyse this document you identify the core goals (be it new customers from the Net, Additional sales profits or marketing goals) and incorporate them into your vision of the project.

After you've got a clear vision of what the future site will look like you just have to sit down for an hour and write the Requirements specifications (more on that here again) which you must afterwards discuss with the client to share the same vision to eliminate any future misunderstandings possible. Then revise the document and be sure to ask the client to sign it.

So how does it all actually benefit you? Simple! You identify the goals, see them clearly (Hey Mark Joyner! You rock!) and save time doing unnecessary work later.

You must have asked yourself earlier why some particular sites look "too simple" or "ugly" to you and their owners like them anyway - it's not the developers did their job badly - they just met the client's needs and sometimes even replaced something really cool and right with what he wanted. It's his site, his life and sometimes it's better to leave it that way.

If you see you could improve something in the way the client sees it, don't criticize his/her vision - just tell how you see it could be done "even better" - suggest some options to choose from. Your options. Explain pros and cons of each of these and the client will simply choose what he/she seems to be appropriate.

Yes, it's that simple!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful was this advice, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))