effectively engaging stakeholders in drupal projects

Effectively Engaging Stakeholders in Drupal Projects (aka: How to make your Executive Director happy)

Julia Kulla-Maderhttp://www.juliakm.com@JuliaKM

Julia Kulla-MaderProject Manager/Web Developer5 Years of Drupal Experience

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Why am I qualified to give this talk?

• Nonprofit website redesign alumna

• Relaunched AASHE.ORG twice

• Involved in redesigning many other Drupal sites

• Long-time Drupal user/developer

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How to make your stakeholders happy today and tomorrow

• Rely on objectives, not hunches

• Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• Plan for support after the launch

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Three Things I Want You to Remember

• Rely on objectives, not hunches

• Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• The fourth trimester: plan for support after the launch

5Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Start By Identifying Stakeholders

6Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Sandra Bob

How do we meet Sandra and Bob’s needs?

7Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

• Doesn’t see a need for change

• No familiarity with HTML, comfortable to send edits to IT

• Wants to be able to quickly point members to website information

• Prefers to spend as little money as possible SandraStaff Member

How do we meet Sandra and Bob’s needs?

8Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

• Thinks the current site is “cluttered”

• Heard about a great new CMS from his nephew last week

• Wants the site to look professional

• Loves lots of pictures and movies BobBoard Member

Before You Begin: Gather Background Information

• What is the problem we want to solve? Why are we doing this?

• Has this been attempted before? Why did it fail or succeed?

• Is anything at my organization in flux that might change this project?

9Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Develop Objectives with Sandra and Bob

• How will we measure whether the project is successful?

• Each person on the team needs to agree to the project objectives

10Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Example - from AASHE.ORG

11Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Plan to engage stakeholders throughout the process

• What phases of the decision process would benefit from involvement by various stakeholder groups? {What phase would not?}

• Should Bob participate in every decision? What about Sandra?

12Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Core Team Extended Team

Example - Engaging Stakeholders

Core Team

Extended Team

Sandra - Program representativeYou* - IT Manager/Web developerMatt - Web developerPaul - Exec. Dir* Project Manager

Board memberMember representativeRepresentative from Team ARepresentative from Team BRepresentative from Team CCore Team

Objectives: Rinse and Repeat

• Throughout the process, when questions or suggestions arise, measure against your objectives

14Section: Rely on objectives, not hunches.

Three Things I Want You to Remember

• Rely on objectives, not hunches

• Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• The fourth trimester: plan for support after the launch

15Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

What does a user-driven process look like?

16Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Develop clear, universally accepted

objectives

Use card sorting to develop your

navigation

Wireframe Again and Again While Testing Against Objectives

Before you launch test with

stakeholders and non-stakeholders

Start with Navigation

• Navigation visually defines your organizations priorities

• Navigation helps people from veering off track

• Navigation keeps people on your website

17Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Navigation: Card Sorting Is Your Best Friend

18Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Card Sorting Tools

19Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• Paper-based: Index cards, Post-it notes

• Web Based: OptimalSort, Websort

• Mac: Xsort

• Windows: UXSort, CardZort

• Analysis Tools SynCaps (Windows), Card Sort Analysis Spreadsheet

Wireframe Everything Major

• You can go through iterative wireframes and data migration at the same time

• All pages where people are likely to have strong opinions should be wireframed

20Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

The homepage should only have 2

columns!

Wireframing Tools

• Balsamiq, Omnigraffle, Visio, Photoshop, Word

21Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Test Wireframes

• Test wireframes with your stakeholders through questions against your objectives

22Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Wireframe and Test Again Until You Feel Good

• Making changes to a wireframe is easier than making changes to a live site design

23Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Go Through The Same Process for Designs

• Create a survey for gathering design feedback

• Make improvements using an iterative approach

Green isn’t the color

of sustainability!

Reflect Before Moving On

• Does something not seem right? It’s easier to change things before you launch.

• Feedback Army is a good resource for quick tests

25Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Test and Test Again

• Develop personas to test your site

26Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Shironda - StudentClaire - Grant Officer

Engage Stakeholders Again at the End

• Let your stakeholders evaluate whether you have met your objectives

27Section: Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

Launch!

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Three Things I Want You to Remember

• Rely on objectives, not hunches

• Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• Plan for support after the launch

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Support after the launch

• Monitor feedback to your revised site

• Monitoring Tools: Contact Form (Webform module), Feedback Tab, User Voice

• Have a plan in place for responding to questions and concerns

30Section: Plan for support after the launch

Think Carefully About Permissions

• As you give staff access to the website, think about who should have what editing privileges carefully

• How will the Executive Director feel about an intern editing her bio?

Section: Plan for support after the launch

Educate and Support Your Content Editors

• Provide a knowledge base for answering frequently asked questions

• Have one line of communication for questions (ticketing system, email address, etc.)

Section: Plan for support after the launch

Don’t Forget to Update Your Site’s Code

• Update code when needed

• Have a plan in place for how you will find out about and implement code updates

Section: Plan for support after the launch

Summary: Three Things I Want You to Remember

• Rely on objectives, not hunches

• Design and implement a user-driven redesign process

• Plan for support after the launch

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Thanks for listening!