A UI Site Map

Using client knowledge to visualize the scope more accurately.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Scope discussions are one of those things that people either love or they hate. I think it all comes down to a few key things:

• Does your organization invest in conversations that clarify boundaries?

• Can you and your client find a way to talk apples:apples instead of apples:oranges?

• Are you willing to walk away from a client if they don’t value your team?

After working with a freight company on an integrated customer journey, our design team went into an RFI process for the redesign of their enterprise website. As we talked about the reasons it should be us, it really came down to our insider knowledge. We had interviewed close to 80 stakeholders and customers for the Journey Mapping project and as the lead experience designer, I had developed subject-matter expertise alongside my understanding of the business needs, customer needs, and the aims of the new marketing team.

We heard through our contacts within the company that they were looking at a range of design and development partners, but we couldn’t see the common thread in their invitations. There was even one group that had a specialty with an older CMS. During the journey mapping project, we had identified a content strategy centered on the fact that the company’s prospects did not know what criteria they should use to judge freight companies and we realized we needed to do the same for them. We just needed to tell them what mattered in a website consolidation and design project and show it to them in a way that really hit home.

There were several items we added to the proposal to make our case and we decided that we could create a Site Map that was approximately 85% accurate. Since our client was a highly visual learner and a person of action, I sat down and created it. Initially, we thought it would be a document that would just give them an impression of our understanding. But the client saw it as real documentation that we started the process significantly ahead of anyone else. She even leaned across the table and said, “I know I can’t have this without signing the SOW. Can you just hang on to this for me?”

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