Observations after Fifteen Years

David Hobbs Consulting has been operating now for fifteen years! This all started when a colleague suggested I change my LinkedIn profile to David Hobbs Consulting rather than just leaving my status as unemployed. What does David Hobbs Consulting do? Early and systemic guidance for even broader and deeper web presence transformations. We do this primarily in two ways: 1) early implementation strategies (to answer "what should we be doing?") and 2) transformation/migration advice (to answer "how do we get from where we are now to where we need to get?"). It’s now difficult to imagine working anywhere else on these issues.

I'll dive straight into some observations over the last 15 years.

Most big web projects go straight to digital agencies

It’s pretty much a knee jerk reaction: an organization decides they need big website changes, so they send an RFP to implement changes (yes, the implementation work is also often internal but the same difficulties remain). For instance, if an organization thinks "we need a new revamped main corporate site," the immediate reaction is probably "we will send an RFP out to design and implement it." For agencies, this is both an advantage (agencies get a steady stream of requests) and disadvantage (the requesting organization may not actually be ready for the changes or even be aligned enough to give coherent feedback on the process). But this is a problem for organizations: the RFP is too late for making even bigger changes.

I mostly start working with organizations early, before any RFP or project definition. By this I mean: a) before initiating serious discussions with potential implementation partners (partially to first define what types of firms should even be approached), b) with enough time before deep hands-on work (like design and UX) to have set broad principles, and c) with enough time in advance to influence budget and broad scope.

If your RFP is very generic (for instance, if mostly you are "specifying" things in this RFP bingo card), then stop before sending out that RFP and get aligned first. If you hear of an organization considering a redesign, they should work early on getting aligned (watch the one year before redesign webinar recording).

Most digital work is single site

You won't realize this when looking at conference talk titles, client lists, or marketing materials (all of which emphasize the size of the client but not the size of the work), but most digital work is very narrow. This actually has taken me a long time to realize (I really only came to this conclusion in the last few years), since I naturally gravitate toward the broad, systemic challenges. For instance, I developed Content Chimera to be able to do the type of organization-wide content analysis work, but when selling these capabilities I realized that many agencies, consultants, and organizations owning websites rarely do the broader, systematic type of work.

Put another way, a lot of digital work either: 1) keeps the silos in place but just redesigns the silos in place or 2) adds another silo (such as a microsite). Or it is in theory broad work but through a piecemeal lens (see next section).

I am often approached specifically since an organization wants to make very broad changes. On the other hand, sometimes I am approached about defining an implementation strategy for a single site (even if it is their "main" site) and when defining my own consulting scope push for broader work. For instance, when I was asked to look at the CMS requirements for a global organization, I made the point that I saw no reason to expect the worldwide groups would actually want or agree to even being in a single CMS — so I worked on a scope to talk with the global teams to better frame where there was commonality and not.

If your organization has a complex digital presence (regardless of what part of the digital presence you or your team works on — see Digital Presence/Website Size and Complexity and this complexity calculator), then 1) consider whether broader changes would lead to much better results and b) in particular be very careful about spawning a microsite (microsite checklist). Beware when people lean on "not wanting to boil the ocean" as an excuse for silo'd work — it may make sense to do broader work but without as much bling to it (maybe forgo winning a design award for a more coherent experience for your site visitors).

Most ongoing digital work is piecemeal

In addition to the problem of most work being on a single site, most digital work is piecemeal in one of these ways:

• Single discipline. Often digital work is looking at the problem from a single discipline, for instance IA or taxonomy.

• Single event. The work is often very focused on the single launch event.

• A "build it and they will come" approach. Even if the intent is broad, sometimes the actual act of onboarding / rolling out isn't considered, like it will happen magically.

If these activities fit within a broad plan, then that's fine (and needed — you need to carefully plan for the single event of a relaunch itself for example). But often the work isn't neatly fit within a broader, multi-disciplinary plan. Often teams end up being a bit single minded about the problems they face or the solution they want, without considering the overall needs and opportunities.

David Hobbs Consulting attempts to start with the overall needs of the organization in order to first develop a strategy and only then decide what specific disciplines and activities are required, and taking a long view to how to achieve and maintain that strategy.

When undertaking any change, ensure it is grounded on a strategy and that the change is the most effective way to achieve that strategy.

Most digital work is reactive

Especially on an ongoing basis, most digital work is reactive, almost devolving into order taking. Here I am mostly talking about ongoing, day-to-day and month-to-month work. The core internal team responsible for actually making changes to the website often becomes so overwhelmed by requests that they devolve into implementing what is easy instead of what is important (for instance, providing more flexible editing options rather than tested templates to support the most commonly-requested changes).

David Hobbs Consulting works with organizations to have a more proactive approach to operating their digital presence. These are some of the ways:

• Reframing the way organizations conceive of their digital presence, for instance by introducing the concept of site types for very large digital presences in order to better structure and optimize sites.

• Rethinking how ongoing changes occur, such as considering charging fixed price vs. hourly internally in order to make room for broader ongoing changes.

• When undergoing a redesign, ensuring that structures are implemented to allow better ongoing management.

• Generally providing advice on introducing product management processes.

We all forget the basics

We all seem to fall over ourselves trying to be experts on the latest and greatest. But whatever the flavor of the month/year, we all forget the basics, that are perhaps a bit boring but essential. For instance, as I look back at articles I've written I realized that often I write the blog post that I would like to read, but I need to focus more on my target audiences (such as owners of large digital presences).