An all too common complaint from web managers is that their website does not enjoy the support from executives it deserves.
But is lack of support the fault of the executives who fail to grasp internet value, or the web manager who fails to talk their talk and present the website value in a concise, impactful way that will motivate executives to support the web?
The fault lies squarely with the web manager, according to a practical, helpful white paper “Best Practices for Creating a Web Strategy: What Web Managers Need to Know,” produced by J. Boye, a vendor-neutral analyst firm.
“The key is to make the problems tangible enough, so they can be understood by executives who generally have little web understanding,” say the report's authors Dorthe R. Jespersen and Peter E. B. Nissen of J. Boye. “It is crucial to speak the language of top management. Focus on high-level business problems, rather than low level problems and technical details. Such details may be problematic in the everyday life of the web manager but they are of little importance to the organisation’s key tasks.”
In addition to the helpful suggestions on how to present the strategy to executives in a meaningful manner, the report provides many practical ideas and examples on how to avoid the six common pitfalls of developing a web strategy, which the authors identify as:
- Creating the strategy without documentation on users
- Not involving internal stakeholders
- Not understanding your executives as an audience
- Not following up on whether the strategy brought results and revising the strategy accordingly
- Describing the strategy in abstract and vague terms
- Making the strategy too operational
The document makes a strong case for the benefit of utilizing the services of neutral, third-party expert to assist with the strategic plan, but it emphasizes the importance of having the web manager take responsibility for developing it.
“We don’t advise that you let someone else write your web strategy,” the authors observe. “You need to go through the process yourself, involving stakeholders along the way. If not, you will probably have a hard time implementing it because of lack of buy-in across the organisation and lack of knowledge of the strategy process inside the organisation.”
While most strategy books are targeted at the CEO-level, this 35-page report guides the web manager in creating a solid web strategy that speaks to the executive suite. Although the report is targeted mainly at the web managers for public websites, much of the advice will also apply to intranets.
The report is supported by research gathered from interviews with 19 European organizations—including governments, for-profit enterprises and NGOs—and draws on collected experiences with web strategy from several conferences and a European community of practice with 250+ members facilitated by J. Boye.
Download the report Best Practices for Creating a Web Strategy: What Web Managers Need to Know.
