Evaluating your needs

We first start with a detailed evaluation of your needs.  This usually takes the form of an email exchange and at least one substantial conversation by phone about the vision for your organization, your goals for the site, and where you might like to see things evolve down the road.  We like to understand your vision and and align ourselves with them as best we can, and then work from there.

Before the conversation, we will often ask for just a bit of homework on your part.  We find it helpful to ask for 3 or so URL's to sites that are appealing to you, and in some way similar to what you might envision for yours, along with a few words about what you like about each.  For example, you might like the color scheme of a particular site, or the header font, or the layout of the news articles is particularly clear and what your like, etc.  This gives us visual "feel" and starting point.

Then when we speak, we always ask three key questions:

1. What do you need right now?  What is the "must-have" version of your site as you envision it now?
2. What would you like to build if there was a bit more time and resources?  This is a second-priority list that could get designed and implemented sometime after your site is live, but is not absolutely essential to the core mission.
3. Where do you see the site going in a year, or two, or three?  How might your organization grow and change, and how might your website grow and change?  For example, though you don't sell products or services online right now, you might in a couple of years, or though you don't absolutely need a members' forum right now, it might part of your vision to grow into that.  This allows us to better plan and make strategic decisions about how best to lay the technical and visual foundation for where things might go.

From all this, we make a general plan for what we will build, when, and in what order.  We keep in mind your budget, any timing constraints and other issues we can anticipate from either side.