Steve Bedford’s Presentation to a Global Conference

Conical MD Steve Bedford recently presented at an international on-line conference on the subject of web project management. Steve was joined by Robert Algeri of the US web agency ‘Great Jakes’.

Steve’s presentation pulled content from his experience of running web projects within the professional services sector. One of the themes explored by Steve and endorsed by the participants, was that web projects need to be run with an appreciation of the decision making culture within the organisation.

Much as different people have different designs for their living rooms, so obtaining agreement on a web design or even a navigation structure for a site, is unlikely to be simple, if the project is run with a wide number of participants. Projects that have smaller project teams with delegated authority for decision making, tend to run more effectively and to budget, than more diverse structures.

At a time when we have all had to retreat to remote working with minimal personal contact it was striking to note just how strong the role of referral is when winning new business of substance. One of the things this results in is heavy direct traffic to the profiles of team members, searched for by name and not the service they offer. This suggests that people profiles are critical when it comes to websites within professional firms – an area that is often neglected.

After all if we accept that referral is an excellent source of new work, then it is worth asking how many potentially referred clients were put off by a dated and thin, personal profile of the person they had been referred to?