How to Prepare for your Website Discovery Session with EDUCO

Congratulations on your upcoming website Discovery Session!

We’re really looking forward to getting the ball rolling and want to make sure everyone is prepared to make it a productive, successful meeting. 

We know you probably have a lot of questions about what to expect, so we’ll do our best at answering them. If you have any other wonderings not covered here, please don’t hesitate to reach out. In this resource we'll cover:

• The meeting purpose
• Who should attend
• Ways to prepare
• What to bring
• Next steps
• What happens if new features come up

What’s the purpose of the meeting?

Planning and communication are two critical cornerstones of a successful website redesign project. We like to think of Discovery as an opportunity for people from your organization and ours to come together as one cohesive group that will work collaboratively towards the same goals. 

The goal of Discovery is to finalize the scope of development so that there are no surprises. The final Discovery deliverable will be a comprehensive deck outlining the project vision, our findings, as well as the project timeline and an updated estimate.

Who should attend the meeting?

While you may be tempted to include several people from different departments in this meeting, we recommend that no more than three people attend. We’ll definitely want to speak with your different departments during the project planning, but for the Discovery, three is a good number to keep things moving. In particular, including a representative from the marketing team, the project manager, and the content/site manager will ensure we cover the essential aspects of the project without overwhelming the discussion. You can certainly include more individuals in your internal meetings before and after the Discovery session, but we find that fewer cooks in the kitchen make for a much more efficient and effective planning process.

How should we prepare for the meeting?

There are a few key things we recommend doing before the Discovery meeting to make sure everything goes smoothly. 

• The best thing you can do to prepare is to complete our project intake form as thoroughly as possible. If you have already done this you're ahead of the curve.
• Assign a primary point person who will coordinate the project, ensure deadlines are met, gather internal feedback and communicate with the EDUCO team.
• Discuss branding, colors, logos, and style guides, voice & tone guides and any other materials that will guide the look and feel of the website. 
• Gather logo design files in all the formats you have. We'll provide you with a folder to upload them to after our meeting.
• Gather credentials for your current CMS, hosting and any other relevant accounts we’ll need to access. ​
• Create a “wish list” of all the things you’d like your new website to include.
• Jot down any questions you have for us about the process or any new developments that have come up since we last spoke.

What should we bring to the meeting?

• Your preferred note-taking tool (laptop, tablet, notepad, etc.)
• Relevant login credentials (see above)
• Any logo and brand asset files
• Notes from internal meetings – wish list of features, exact brand colors, etc.
• List of peer sites to review
• List of sites outside your industry that you like

What happens next?

The short answer is a lot. We may have a few follow-up conversations after the meeting.

We synthesize everything we discussed and produce the discovery deliverable, which includes:

• The project vision
• Any color change modifications
• Project scope
• Timeline and budget

Once EDUCO has all of the materials to review, we will schedule a screen-share meeting to present and walk you through the rationale behind the plan. After each presentation, you and your team will have the opportunity to review independently to determine what feedback and/or requests for revisions you have. 

What happens if we want to add new features or functionality after Discovery?

It’s normal for your ideas about the website to evolve as you progress through development, and we can certainly accommodate changes. However, it’s important to keep in mind that changes and additions usually impact the budget and timeline. We'll always do our best to provide in-budget solutions/options, but there still may be timeline implications.

If a new request is out of the scope of the original plan, then we’ll provide the information you need to decide about how to proceed. For some projects, it makes sense to pursue those additional features as a part of a post launch enhancement initiative after the new website is live.

We can't wait to get started!

Discovery is one of the most exciting steps of the website development process. Everyone is engaged, eager and optimistic about what’s to come. 

It’s our goal that you leave feeling just as fired up as when you arrive, so we do our best to set realistic expectations and goals. After all, the Discovery planning often sets the tone for the rest of the project. 

If there’s anything more we can do to help you and your team start off on the right foot, please let us know. Thank you again for entrusting EDUCO with your website transformation and we’ll see you soon!