website project planner

the company

Background to your company, product & clients, the competition (include URLs).

 

Who will manage the website project?

 

Who will respond to leads from the web site and how much of their time will they spend on it?

 

Do you own a domain name? Does it match your offline identity?

 

the project

Summarize in one sentence the mission statement of the web site.

 

What are the basic goals of this project?

 

What outcome will make this project successful and how will you measure success?

 

When does the site need to go live?

 

What is the budget for this project?

 

Is there an acceptable budget range, depending on the level and comprehensiveness of services provided? Please explain.

 

Is your entire web budget dedicated to the build or does it have a separate marketing budget? Please explain.

 

Describe any existing site you have, what has been useful/useless about it?

 

Will the web site reinforce an existing branding or marketing strategy? How?

 

Discuss any identity/branding assets (logos, other artwork, and fonts) or issues.

 

who's going to visit you

What types of visitors do you want to attract? (Focus on a maximum of four types)

 

What are your goals for each type of visitor?

 

What are the products/services involved?

 

What are your goals for these products/services?

 

content

Where will content come from? Will it be new, repurposed, or both?

 

How often will you add new content?

 

Who will update the content? How many hours per week will they spend doing it?

 

functionality

What functional requirements do you believe to be necessary? (e.g., download documents, e-commerce, password protection, etc.)

 

Are there extraordinary security issues?

 

What types of legacy systems/databases are in place? Explain how the site should tie in with these systems.

 

What is your long-term plan for the site?

 

your surfing experience

This part of the profile is very important. The more work you put into it, the more your project will benefit. It requires spending a fair bit of time online, but it is the best way to decide what you need.

Find the three highest quality sites (more is better) on the Web that relate to your project in the following categories:

Branding in a similar situation to yours (new company, new brand, established brand, etc.)

 

 

Appeal to same target group of customers

 

 

Colors, look-and-feel, user interface, layoutt, etc.)

 

 

Attracting new people to the site (newsworthiness, giveaways, impact, etc.)

 

 

Your competitors' sites

 

 

Quality of content

 

 

Functionality (things sites do for people)

 

 

Community, special features, responsiveness, other categories important to your project

 

 

Overall favorite sites (for whatever reasons)