Your nonprofit is taking on a new website project. You think you have a pretty good understanding of what’s important…but are you sure? And do others in your organization share that understanding?
Misunderstandings from the beginning can really trip your whole project up. If you get halfway through only to discover that others were aiming in a different direction, you may face real rework. But if your team is actually on the same page up front, it’s quick to confirm alignment and move forward. The time you invest creating a shared vision may well save you far more time down the road.
A Quick Vision Definition Process
This doesn’t have to be a complex process. The key is to answer a core set of questions about your website project: who’s involved, what you’re trying to achieve, who you’re building for, what they need, and what limitations you’re working within.
Here are the essential questions to work through with your team:
- Who are the organizational stakeholders for the project? Identify who’s in charge, who the leadership sponsor is, and who should be involved in brainstorming and helping you understand how relevant processes currently work. Make sure you get input from all the departments and types of employees that will be affected by the new website. For more on ways to structure your team, see Clear roles—Because every website project needs less drama.
- Who is the core working group for your Vision process? You may not be able to include all your stakeholders in every meeting, but you should create a core committee. These people should commit to participating in all the conversations, meetings, and decisions it will take to define the Vision.
- How will you make decisions? Your working group needs to discuss and sign off on the questions below. For a small project with few stakeholders, you could send them a document with a starting point, have an hour-long conversation to walk through everything, and be done. Larger projects may need a workshop for each item, or more. As a first step, make sure your working group agrees on your process for defining the Vision.
- What are the goals? Goals should be things you hope to increase or decrease. “New visual design” is not a goal—that’s a tactic. Better goals might be “increase credibility of the organization” or “help visitors more easily find ways to get help.” These goals might be addressed with a new visual design, but the design is the solution, not the goal itself.
- What are your “North Star” goals? You’ll likely identify many goals, but try to rank them. Then identify a few to be your “North Star” for the project, the ones that will determine whether your project is successful. These should guide your decision-making throughout the project.
- Who are the audiences? Who will be impacted by the website? This includes anyone you’re trying to address with a goal, whether internal or external. Be specific: “the general public” is never a useful audience definition. Try to rank your audiences by priority.
- What are the audience’s goals? For your top several audiences, what do you imagine they would most like to accomplish on your website? Be realistic. For instance, if you have educational programs, your visitors are much more likely to be looking for free resources than immediately interested in a paid certificate program.
- What are the constraints? What limitations do you need to design around? Budget and timeframe are obvious ones. Personnel is important too: do you need to be able to support the new website within a certain number of staff hours? Are there technology constraints, such as an impractical-to-change content management system?
If you’re able to get general agreement within the working group on these questions, you’re good to proceed. Define an action plan for the work, and get going! If not, some of the tactics below can help.
Tactics for More Complex Projects
When in doubt, add research. It’s surprising how much nearly any kind of additional perspective can help a working team reach agreement. If you get stuck, or if you know your stakeholders won’t easily reach consensus through workshops alone, try these approaches:
- Interview some audience members. Even four or five interviews with people who will use your website can help crystallize many aspects of the vision. They’ll certainly inform your understanding of audience goals.
- Gather internal staff priorities. More staff voices can help clarify what’s important for the organization. Simple “email surveys” (just a few questions staff can quickly answer and send back) work well. Analyze the responses for trends that inform your goals and audiences.
- Conduct additional research. Audience research, competitive analysis, and academic research all provide clarity when your vision is murky.
- Create goal-directed audience personas. Personas are fictitious profiles of your website’s users, which help you put yourself in other people’s shoes. “Goal-directed” personas mean that you split out different users based on how they interact with your site. They’re ideally based on research, but even a quick set based on existing knowledge can help people identify realistic audiences.
Document Your Vision
Whatever process you use, end with clear documentation that’s easy to reference. Create a quick one-pager summarizing your decisions.
If things go in a strange direction midway through the project, you can refer back to these documents. Are you still heading toward those North Star goals? Focusing on your core audiences? This simple reference can be the difference between a quick course correction and expensive rework.
Moving Forward
A well-defined vision isn’t just a planning exercise. It’s a map for your project. When questions come up during design or development, your vision documents provide the answer: does this decision serve our North Star goals and our key audiences?
With a shared vision in place, your team can move forward with confidence, knowing you’re all working toward the same destination.
Your nonprofit is taking on a new website project. You think you have a pretty good understanding of what’s important to your organization…but are you sure? And do others in your organization share that understanding?
Misunderstandings from the beginning can really trip your whole project up. If you get halfway through only to discover that others were aiming in a somewhat different direction, you may face real rework. On the other hand, if your team is actually on the same page up front, it’s fairly quick to confirm alignment and move forward confidently.
The time you invest creating a shared vision may well save you far more time down the road.
A Quick Vision Definition Process
This doesn’t have to be a complex process. The key is to answer a core set of questions about your website project: who’s involved, what you’re trying to achieve, who you’re building for, what they need, and what limitations you’re working within.
Here are the essential questions to work through with your team:
- Who are the organizational stakeholders for the project? Identify who’s in charge, who the leadership sponsor is, and who should be involved in brainstorming and helping you understand how relevant processes currently work. Make sure you get input from all the departments and types of employees that will be affected by the new website. For more on ways to structure your team, see Clear roles—Because every website project needs less drama.
- Who is the core working group for your Vision process? You may not be able to include all your stakeholders in every meeting, but you should create a core committee. These people should commit to participating in all the conversations, meetings, and decisions it will take to define the Vision.
- How will you make decisions? Your working group needs to discuss and sign off on the questions below. For a small project with few stakeholders, you could send them a document with a starting point, have an hour-long conversation to walk through everything, and be done. Larger projects may need a workshop for each item, or more. As a first step, make sure your working group agrees on your process for defining the Vision.
- What are the goals? Goals should be things you hope to increase or decrease. “New visual design” is not a goal—that’s a tactic. Better goals might be “increase credibility of the organization” or “help visitors more easily find ways to get help.” These goals might be addressed with a new visual design, but the design is the solution, not the goal itself.
- What are your “North Star” goals? You’ll likely identify many goals, but try to rank them. Then identify a few to be your “North Star” for the project, the ones that will determine whether your project is successful. These should guide your decision-making throughout the project.
- Who are the audiences? Who will be impacted by the website? This includes anyone you’re trying to address with a goal, whether internal or external. Be specific: “the general public” is never a useful audience definition. Try to rank your audiences by priority.
- What are the audience’s goals? For your top several audiences, what do you imagine they would most like to accomplish on your website? Be realistic. For instance, if you have educational programs, your visitors are much more likely to be looking for free resources than immediately interested in a paid certificate program.
- What are the constraints? What limitations do you need to design around? Budget and timeframe are obvious ones. Personnel is important too: do you need to be able to support the new website within a certain number of staff hours? Are there technology constraints, such as an impractical-to-change content management system?
If you’re able to get general agreement within the working group on these questions, you’re good to proceed. Define an action plan for the work, and get going! If not, some of the tactics below can help.
Tactics for More Complex Projects
When in doubt, add research. It’s surprising how much nearly any kind of additional perspective can help a working team reach agreement. If you get stuck, or if you know your stakeholders won’t easily reach consensus through workshops alone, try these approaches:
- Interview some audience members. Even four or five interviews with people who will use your website can help crystallize many aspects of the vision. They’ll certainly inform your understanding of audience goals.
- Gather internal staff priorities. More staff voices can help clarify what’s important for the organization. Simple “email surveys” (just a few questions staff can quickly answer and send back) work well. Analyze the responses for trends that inform your goals and audiences.
- Conduct additional research. Audience research, competitive analysis, and academic research all provide clarity when your vision is murky.
- Create goal-directed audience personas. Personas are fictitious profiles of your website’s users, which help you put yourself in other people’s shoes. “Goal-directed” personas mean that you split out different users based on how they interact with your site. They’re ideally based on research, but even a quick set based on existing knowledge can help people identify realistic audiences.
Document Your Vision
Whatever process you use, end with clear documentation that’s easy to reference. Create a quick one-pager summarizing your decisions.
If things go in a strange direction midway through the project, you can refer back to these documents. Are you still heading toward those North Star goals? Focusing on your core audiences? This simple reference can be the difference between a quick course correction and expensive rework.
Moving Forward
A well-defined vision isn’t just a planning exercise. It’s a map for your project. When questions come up during design or development, your vision documents provide the answer: does this decision serve our North Star goals and our key audiences?
With a shared vision in place, your team can move forward with confidence, knowing you’re all working toward the same destination.