the cheeky monkey media web project planner · 1 th e er ch e .cheekymonkeymedia.ca web ... 2 th e...

1 Cheeky Monkey Media - www.cheekymonkeymedia.caThe Cheeky Monkey Media Web Project Planner

Web Project PlannerT H E C H E E K Y M O N K E Y M E D I A


Project PlannerThanks for checking out the Cheeky Monkey Media Project Planner.

This document is simply our attempt to help you figure out your web design project, which can be quite an intensive and confusing process. Throughout your journey into web development you’re likely to do a lot of web research and hear a lot of buzzwords and confusing jargon. It’s not hard to get lost in the terms and confusion, so it is our hope that this planner gives you a good safety zone in which you can keep track of the most important information as you move forward, as well as provide you with some key information to guide your preparations.

Before you get moving, here are some key concepts, ideas, and questions to consider.

Knowing who you areThis probably seems obvious, but it can be a little daunting for a company to actually put this information on paper. Sometimes, it’s just that nobody has taken the time to ac-tually spell it out. This isn’t uncommon as many companies focus on the services and products they’re offering, but nev-er stop to critically assess the what, why, and how of their business.

The website is going to be the online face of the company,


and as we move further into the 21st century, is likely to be a person’s first point of contact with any business. It is import-ant to know all about your company, organization, or busi-ness so that you can focus on the key messages that need to be front and center.

Here are a few specific items to consider before beginning your web development project.

OfferingWhat does your company or organization offer? Are you a service or product provider? If you’re not sure what your company offers, chances are a new website won’t help you figure that out.

But you should know. And maybe, you should know more than “we make widgets”. Before starting on your website, you need to be clear on your place in the world. You need to know what products, services, assistance, and support your company can provide to customers, members, and interest-ed observers.

Go deeper than your basic elevator statement. If you’re a service company, what are the different services you offer, and what are the different reasons that people would need those services? Products, non-profits, or even help avoiding alien invasions – there’s a particular reason behind what your company offers, and you need to know what it is before


you start trying to explain it to a web developer that needs to translate your company into the world of online marketing.

Questions to consider:

• What do we offer?

• How many different specific products/services do we pro-vide?

• Why do we offer it?

• What situation are our customers in when they hire us?

• How does our offering help them?

AudienceJust as important a question (if not the most important) is to whom you offer your services. What do your clients look like? Are they men, women, young, old, laborers, office work-ers, executives?

If you’re working on a website project, it will be important to understand your audience, so that you (and your develop-ment team) can make educated decisions on how informa-tion is presented, and how you expect your audience to navi-gate the site.



• Who are our main customers, clients, members?

• Do our clients come from one particular industry or group?

• Is there a demographic for our audience (age, gender, pro-fession, location, etc.)?

• Are we Business-to-Business (B2B) or do we work directly with the end users (B2C)?

Brand & Corporate IDWhen thinking about your new website, you’ll want to care-fully consider your brand. Do you have a logo? A brand mes-sage? Are there specific colors to represent your business?

When it comes time to design, it will be important to consid-er all of your current marketing collateral. If you have bro-chures, business cards, or signage, your web development team will need to see these pieces to help inspire the cre-ative team as they craft the look and feel of the new design.

More importantly, however, is if you’re planning on creating an entirely new look. If you have plans to change your logo, colors or messaging, it won’t do any good to build a website with yesterday’s look.


Knowing what you want to doThe best question heard in the realm of web development is, “can this be done?” The simple answer is yes – usually, most things can be built into a website. The hard part is figuring out how to do it, and how long it will take. With that in mind, it’s usually better to think about what you want, as opposed to worrying about what may or may not be possible.

When starting to plan your web project, give appropriate time to thinking about what you want to do. Are you looking to sell online? Do you need a website that will convince peo-ple to call your office? Are you simply promoting your ser-vices or industry on your site? And of all these things, why aren’t you doing them already?

These questions are the first steps in developing your web-site plan.

Understanding what’s wrong with your siteIf you don’t have a website, this problem is pretty self-evi-dent – you need to get online. But even in this case, think about why. Obviously, if you’re not online and you want to be, there’s something missing that you believe a website will help. Give some thought to what you’re missing, and why you think it will be necessary to add it in the future.

On the flip side, if you have a website but are looking at


changes, it’s even more important to understand the issues before moving forward on a web development plan.

Questions to consider:• How old is the current site?

• What was it originally intended to do?

• Why is it no longer accomplishing this goal? For additional information, take a look at our blog post: 9 Signs Your Website is Out of Date.

Knowing what you want to changeKnowing what’s wrong and knowing what you want to change aren’t necessarily the same thing. What is really im-portant at this point is to understand and identify the miss-ing pieces of your current web strategy.

Do you want a website that responds to screen sizes (so it’s easy to view on mobile phones and tablets)? Are you plan-ning on selling products online, and need to add a shopping cart? Is your site no longer in line with your current brand? There are a million different things you can add to a website project. The trick is limiting that down to features that will help you reach your business goals.

http://cheekymonkeymedia.ca/blog/creative-design/9-signs-your-website-out-date

http://cheekymonkeymedia.ca/blog/creative-design/9-signs-your-website-out-date



If you could go back in time, what would you have done dif-ferently with your website?

What pieces are missing from the current site that prevent it from meeting your business goals?

Are the changes I want going to help reach these goals?

Having a goal for your new siteOnce you have an idea of the current issues it’s important to consider the direction and plan for the new site. A website that has no specific goals is simply just an expensive busi-ness card, and isn’t likely to help your business in any signifi-cant fashion.

Every website needs a purpose – what business or person-al goal (or both) are you trying to accomplish through the use of a website? The clearer the goal, the easier it will be to develop a strategy. More than that, with clear goals, it will be far simpler to measure and track progress and success along the way.


• What is my business lacking that a website can help?

• What effect would I like the website to have on my busi-ness?

• What methods will be used to measure and track success?


Taking steps to changeNow that you have a good idea about the basics of your company and what you’re looking to do with a website, it is time to think about taking action. While it’s not necessary to have all of the previous questions answered completely, it is important to consider them and formulate an opinion. Remember, this is your website, and your opinion is going to matter.

With the basics covered, you’ll need to take a look at more in-depth discussions in regards to the project.

Do you have a feature list? Do you need help creating one?

A feature list isn’t really rocket science. It sounds official, but at the end of the day, the feature list is simply the wish list of items, functions, and parts that you would want on the web-site. Many times, people have issues with this part because they don’t know all of the things that can be done, or they’re not sure how to explain it to a tech person. The simple truth is this: write your feature list in language and terms you’re comfortable with (a good developer will be able to use your description as a guide when they’re conceptualizing the proj-ect) and don’t worry about what can and can’t be done (it’s the web – anything can be done, given enough development time).

When organizing your feature list, it’s best to do a full brain-storm, including every item that would be on your wish list.


Once you have a complete list of all the different items you’d like to see on the site, then you can take the opportunity to prioritize them, and then plan accordingly for the project.


• What features are on my wish list?

• Of these features, which are the ones I can’t live without?

• Have I included everything, even the items I’m not sure are possible?

• Do you have the capability/capacity to do this in-house?

Depending on the size of the feature list, its complexity, and the level of talent within an organization’s IT department, some web features can be done in-house. If the project is simple, straightforward, and requires minimal development times, this can often be a very economical solution for many companies as they look to enhance their web presence. However, when considering this option, consideration should be given to the potential cost of the project in terms of time and resources spent, rather than simple dollars and cents.

Many times, the IT department is one of the busiest groups in any company. The task list seems never-ending, and new items appear daily. By choosing to produce the web product in-house, companies must be prepared for longer tech sup-port times, fewer available resources, and the potential for low-priority tasks to get pushed far down the calendar.



• Does the internal IT team have the talent and skill to do this project?

• What are the potential impacts on the IT department and tech support should resources be devoted to the website?

• Can this project be done without negative impact to inter-nal processes?

Have you sought out development partners?Assuming that the IT department either doesn’t have the time, or doesn’t have the ability to produce the site, it’s likely you’ll have to source potential partners to perform the devel-opment. For many companies, this can be a daunting task. There seems to be an endless supply of information and opinions on web companies, prices, timelines, and skills. It’s at this point in time, many companies start to feel discour-aged about the project in general.

The key to remember at this stage is that a good web devel-opment partner is there to support your team through the process, and be able to answer questions in a way that’s easy to understand. Price and service levels vary dramatical-ly based on the size of the company, their experience, and even their geographic location. It’s always good to approach the hiring of a development agency in a similar fashion to hiring a new employee – establish a preferred set of qualifi-


cations, set a budget for the hire, and be sure to pick a team with which you can work comfortably.


What skills would be the most important to the successful completion of the project?

Is the potential web developer able to answer questions in a way that make sense and are understandable to non-tech people?

Is this a team that will work well with my internal team?

Knowing that there are no stupid questions

Again, to reiterate, many companies get discouraged about the web project at this point in time. There are simply so many different things to learn and know, and way too much conflicting information available in order to make sense of anything. Marketers, IT, Purchasers and even C-Level execu-tives can have difficulty if for no other reason than they sim-ply don’t feel they know enough about web. Let’s be clear: at the point in time that you decide to seek a web development agency to assist with your project, it’s usually a given that either the time, skillset, or knowledge base isn’t accessible internally.

When you speak with web development companies, they should know more about the world of online marketing than you do (if they don’t, what would be the point of hiring them in the first place?), and they should be able to help you make


sense of the noise. The key to remember while interviewing development partners (and, even throughout the project itself) is that there are absolutely no stupid questions. In fact, all of the stupid questions were already asked by most web developers years ago when they were learning how to become web developers in the first place. If the time comes where you don’t understand something, that’s a normal thing for most people. The trick is simply being willing to ask any and all questions when you feel this way.

Questions to consider:Do you understand everything you’re being told?

If you don’t, what do you gain from never finding out the an-swer?

What are the chances you’re the only person to ask that question?

(ANSWER: 0%)

Planning ResourcesWith the initial identification of the needs, goals, and desired features for your project done, it will be time to start iden-tifying and committing resources to tackling the project. Typically, many companies manage to have these things identified well in advance of engaging a partner, yet there are cases when nobody has considered the resource com-mitments required. In these situations, it’s common to see


web projects get delayed indefinitely despite all of the work that has already occurred in the initial preparation. To avoid hiccups like these, it’s a good idea to have resources and personnel in place before any issues can come up to delay execution.

Have you determined a budget?Budgets, prices and costs are one of the most easily mis-understood parts of a web project. There are many miscon-ceptions about the cost of typical web projects, as many people can be lured into thinking that they can get a world-class business site for less than the price of a piece of office equipment. The truth is that web projects can range from a few hundreds of dollars to a few hundreds of thousands, depending on the size, complexity and even the developer chosen. (For more information, please check out our eBook “Budgeting Your Web Project: Never be shocked again”)

Budgets are very important for a number of reasons: 1) by determining your budget, you’re able to set a figure that makes sense for your company from a business perspective and given the expected returns; 2) by having a clear budget, you allow web development companies to craft a solution that will be a fit for time, budget, and feature needs; 3) with an understood budget, you’re able to make a better determi-nation of the desired skillset of the potential web develop-ment partner.



Have we set budget aside for this project?

Is it realistic in terms of the size of the site and complexity required?

Does the budget make sense for the returns expected and the needs of the company?

Have you figured out a prospective launch date?Depending on your needs, the launch date may be incredibly important, or it may be lower on the priority list. In any event, it’s important to have a launch date in mind as it allows ev-erybody the clarity to plan around the launch, plan for pro-spective resources during the construction phases, and it provides your web partner with the opportunity to appropri-ately schedule their resources in order to hit that date.

Without a desired launch date, many companies can fall into a situation where the web project gets put on the backburn-er, and progress can slow to a grind. If a launch date has been identified, it ensures accountability from all sides: from internal resources ensuring tasks are accomplished, to the web development partner delivering the project on time.


Is there a specific event, campaign or initiative that will re-quire the new site?


Have we set a timeline that allows internal resources the ability to take on the additional tasks required throughout the project without sacrificing internal productivity?

Is appropriate time budgeted in order to launch a quality product?

Have you allocated a person to manage the project?What can sometimes get lost in the mix is one of the most important aspects of a successful web project: who will be managing the project internally? While hiring an outside agency to perform most of the heavy lifting takes much of the burden off of marketing and IT departments, they simply cannot perform the work in a quality manner without having regular communication with the client team. That said, if the client team consists of several people, it can be terribly diffi-cult to manage the different opinions and wealth of feedback that can be submitted.

To this end, it’s incredibly important to identify who on your team will manage the project. The person in charge will need to be able to manage the internal team, foster collaboration with the web development partner, and ultimately help to establish consensus when making key decisions through-out the project. As well, it’s likely that the project manager will have a number of different tasks to accomplish, and will have to be a skilled multitasker.



Is there a person that has the time and capability to manage the project internally?

Will this person be able to commit time to the project with-out sacrificing productivity?

Is this candidate skilled and organized enough to act as the key contact between the web partner and the internal team?

Are you lost?Even with all of this information, people can still get lost while planning a web project. There are a lot of things to consider, and the wealth of information can add significant layers of confusion and frustration. Throughout the industry, buzzwords like SEO, Content Marketing, CMS and CRM are tossed around like candy, and if a person isn’t up to speed with the latest in the tech world, these references can easily be misunderstood.

Typically, most web development agencies, developers, and boutiques should be able to help you walk through the pro-cess, and answer your questions, and help make sense out of all the information your research has delivered. If you find yourself in conversations where your eyes glaze over, and you start nodding without hearing what was said, that’s your first sign that more clarification is required. Web people like to speak tech, but they’re usually pretty skilled in translating


to English when needed.

The big thing to remember throughout the process of plan-ning your web project is that there is help out there, and most web agencies are looking forward to speaking with you to walk you through. While the world of websites, online marketing and social media can be daunting, there are pro-fessionals that spend their careers learning and mastering these things so you don’t have to. When in doubt, lean on their expertise, and don’t be afraid to ask any questions.

Ultimately, there are only two mistakes you can make when planning your project.

1. Never asking a question that will help you understand things better.

2. Never moving forward with your project, because half the idea was twice as discouraging.

Best of luck throughout your web adventure, and please be sure to browse our Resource Library for more information and helpful articles!

Project Planning Worksheet


Project Planning Worksheet

Corporate BackgroundBasic Information

Company Name: ___________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________

Phone: _____________________________________________________

Website: ____________________________________________________

We would describe our company as:

• Fortune 500 corporation

• Nonprofit organization

• Educational institution

• Large Business (who wants to count that many employ-ees?)

• Medium business (more than 100 employees)

• Small business (less than 50 employees)

• Startup


OfferingWhat is the main offering we provide to customers?

How many products/services do we offer?

What is our current “Value Proposition?”

When our clients seek us out, how would we describe their situation?


Can we redefine this into 2 or 3 specific “Pain Points”?

AudienceWho are our main target customers?

Is there a specific industry that we market to?

Can we identify our main/key prospect persona?

• Age

• Gender

• Experience

• Education


• Profession

• Location

• Language

Brand & Corporate IDWe have a logo

• Yes

• No

Our corporate colors are:

Marketing Collateral we have in hand

Do we want to re-brand?

• Yes

• No


Why?

What look do we prefer?

WebsiteGoals

What was our site originally intended to do?

Why is it no longer accomplishing these goals?


What would we want to change in order to meet the corpo-rate needs?

How do we envision an updated/new website will help us meet our goals?

How would we be able to gauge success conceptually?

How would we gauge success quantitatively?


Feature ListDo we want to be able to manage the site ourselves (put in text, pictures, etc.)?

• Yes

• No

Do we want the site to be presentable on mobile phones and tablets?

• Yes

• No

Do we need to sell items, or take payments of any kind?

• Yes

• No

Will we have information that only “logged in” people can see?

• Yes

• No

Desired Features Priority Ranking


ResourcesFinancial

Have we set aside a budget for this project?

• Yes

• No

Our budget limit is: $______________________

Will this budget allow us to get all of the wish list features?

• Yes

• No

What are our plans if we aren’t able to get all of the desired features with this budget?

• Phased development


• Eliminate features

• Smaller development partner

• Park features for later date

• Abandon project

• Other: ________________________

What returns do we expect to see on this investment?

PersonnelHave we assigned a person to be the head of this project?

• Name: ______________________________________

• Position: ____________________________________

• Is there somebody assigned to assist?

• Name: ______________________________________

• Position: ____________________________________

What will we need to put in place to ensure productivity is not hindered by additional tasks required during this project?


Is there a limit to the length of time this person can stay on this project?

What is the limit to the amount of resource time spent on this project?

DatesIs there a desired launch date?

• Date: _____________________________

Are there particular events occurring for which we would like to have the site ready?

Is this timeline realistic in terms of internal resources re-quired?


Will this timeline give us an appropriate amount of time to build a quality product?

Cheeky Monkey Mediawww.cheekymonkeymedia.ca | [email protected]

1.800.818.4564

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