Responsibilities

• Discovery

  • Reviewing the site analytics for:

    • Bounce rate

    • Time on page

    • Amount of new customers

  • Auditing the current IA

• Define

  • Facilitate IA sketch workshops

  • Create three IA concepts based on technical complexity

    • Define the CMS templates needed to be created

• Strategise

  • Work with key stakeholders to define a roadmap to ‘done’

    • Prioritising focus areas to drive most impact

    • Project manage the team to support completing their tasks

• Design

  • Redesign the Product Page

  • Rebuild the sites categorisation

• Handover

  • Onboard a new designer to take over

Outcome

• Soon to go live

• Revamping how quickly we can update the site

• Making it simpler for our audience to navigate

What I learned

Don’t always seek approval

This was a perfect example of show don’t tell. At the start involved all those who wanted, but realised nothing would ever happen if we carried on that way. I instead started working and speaking to only heads of department. This created momentum and the rogue voices subsided. I was later told this was was of mass inclusion was why the previous website update got cancelled.

Make a roadmap!

It isn’t possible to bring so many teams together without having a clear strategy and plan. To know what comes first, who needs to work on it and then what comes next. It’s too easy for it all to become a jumbled mess with leaders asking for something new every morning. Also, a Project Manager isn’t always the best person to create said roadmap, as the subject expert could be me.

Start with structure, otherwise you’ll regret it later

Atoms, molecules and organisms. Get the basics right and progress multiplies through time. Overlooking component structures and design systems happens when their impact is not understood. Walking leaders through the long-term impact for a short-term investment is worth it.