Fri 17 Oct
2008
Towards a better client survey: Part Five
Posted at 2:28 PM by Max Cameron in Project Management
In Part Five of Towards a Better Client Survey, we take a look at the next section of Kelly Goto's client survey: Current Site.
To (more or less) quote Barack Obama, in order to understand where you want to go, you need to know where you're coming from. If your last website was as economically viable as the last eight years of Republican rule, then maybe it's time for some change. But you don't want to use a hatchet when you need a scalpel (oh this is fun!), and the goal is to strengthen the parts of your project that work, and eliminate the parts of your project that are under-performing.
The first two questions are standard questions that you would expect to find:
What aspects of your current site work well and why are they successful?
and
What aspects of your current site are unsuccessful and why do you think that is?
One issue that we're going to be forced to address is the definition of an “aspect.” Is an aspect a directory or sub-directory? Is an aspect a strategy, or a part thereof? Is an aspect an adjective, a noun, or a pronoun? I suppose it could be all three.
Peronally, I'd like to approach this question from a different angle. I'd prefer to ask, “When you first started out, what were your hopes for your website, what did you hope it would help you accomplish? How many of those goals did it actually accomplish? And then follow-up with, where did it fall short?
Another issue about this question is that of redundancy. Is it the same question to ask, what are your business objectives for the new website? And, “what didn't work in your last website?” wouldn't one expect to see the same answers?
If you update your current site using a content management system, please describe the system and it’s main features. Are you happy with the system?
I think this question is a pretty simple and necessary question, so it's fine with me.