Archive for December, 2007

December 20, 2007

Woo-Hoo! (Or, Just “Whew”)

Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article

Wow, this has been an unforgivable time between posts considering with my last post I was starting a small series. I still have #2 ready to go soon (with a brief pause for “Part 1 Subpart A” to address a good question Ben asked and clarify something I said earlier.)

But the last month has been one full of chaotic 18-hour days as we finalized and (finally) launched a new website for our organization, one that we’ve been working on for a loooong time (ok, it wasn’t two SOLID years; we had other priorities). After it launched on December 9 (at 3:18 in the morning) we did not even have time to uncork some champagne or bask in a job well done. This “site” is actually a complex system that changes pretty much everything we do on the backend with membership, product sales, accounting, and communications — which means there have been a lot of changes to implement and, yes, bugs to discover and fix.

The process still isn’t done but as the holidays bear down upon us I am finally able to take a bit of a breather and sit back and enjoy what we’ve been able to accomplish. The site itself — what you “see” — isn’t even really much of a big deal. It’s the architecture on the backend, which we custom-built from the ground up, which is going to make it easier to add new features and applications on an on-going basis, and more importantly open up whole new avenues of connecting for our constituents and customers.

Have I learned a lot from this process? You bet. I’ve barely had time to process any of it, though. At some point in the future I hope to share some of the successes and mistakes (many mistakes!).

For now, the lesson I will leave with you is not one from me but from another clumper. I think on several occasions David Gammel has suggested that associations should try to implement web strategy and tactical changes in bite-sized pieces, rather than launch a big major change all at once. It’s good advice; you should take it. Trust me.