Project: Management
Our PMs are the secret sauce when it comes to ensuring our website builds are a success.
Stage managers. Legal assistants. They’re the people keeping a project on track, guiding it through deadlines and milestones to a successful finish.
At Week of the Website, that role is filled by our project managers. These intrepid team members are the drive behind our site builds. While our developers are carefully crafting your site to match your vision, our project managers are facilitating communication, scheduling calls, researching solutions, taking copious notes, organizing assets, keeping deadlines on track and much more.
For example, before you even hear from WOTW for the first time, PMs have completed a checklist of more than 20 organizational items to set the project up for success. From there, each day contains its own list of emails, milestones, deadlines and communications. Finally, they not only cross the finish line with you, but they hang out for a minute after, ensuring you have the tutorials and information needed to take over site ownership and make it thrive.
But while completing tasks is essential to our process, arguably the most important thing our PMs do is set a positive tone where everyone feels heard and understood — and also has a fun time.
Here are a few of the tricks and details that our PMs use to keep things on track.
“I set calendar reminders for myself pre-project to check in on how content gathering is coming along. I want to make sure I’m reviewing content as it’s being put in and ask any questions that myself or the developer have.
I focus on building a rapport with the client. Positive vibes relax everyone and build trust.
Finally, I know the basics of Squarespace, file types, plugins and other solutions so I can answer questions on the fly, rather than relying on the developer to clarify things pre-project.”
—Katie Stipanovich, operations manager/PM
“I live by my to-do list, and I use Notion’s capabilities to plan everything out visually.”
—Alaina Gregerson, PM
“I try to keep a birds-eye view of the project in terms of scope/scope creep so that I can be the one holding the line on what’s doable and what isn’t. Since I’m on the West Coast, I also pre-schedule my canned emails so I make sure they hit the client’s inbox at the appropriate time (usually first thing in the morning in their time zone).”
—Claire Harper, PM