Yes, Developer Bob is looking pretty happy; as we were talking through the brief and were already problem solving some initial technical, content (marketing) and design ideas collaboratively.
We could have done all this with email / google docs and skype but we met in person. Okay we’re all in the same locality as it happens but travelling would have been worth it for the initial meet.
The point of this post is :
Face to face, always a good approach if you can possibly do it.
With fresh coffee (or green tea if that’s your thing) to hand.
This meeting was to talk through website design – actually, a redesign / rebuild of the Mikron Theatre website. The coffee-fueled conversation also spilled out into wider content marketing plans and approaches. Like all small to medium size businesses (I use the term deliberately – arts organisations need to be sustainable), marketing nowadays really means content marketing – the days of local press ads went a while back and Mikron had already embraced the opportunities enthusiastically. Understanding where (and in what format) we were looking to place content across the web helped shape initial thoughts in our meeting. For example, about the type of functionality (for the blog / CMS and contact point elements of the site) and specific content types / formats to feature on the site.
I’ve written on this blog about website design principles (and on Smart Insights too) but this meeting was a reminder that wherever possible, have a face to face kick off / briefing meeting with your team.
Whether that’s working with an agency or a freelance confederation.
Written briefs are important, collaboration platforms are great (especially once you are up and running) but (where geographically possible) a face to face initial session to check understandings and agree the project vision is essential.