How to Effectively “Proof” Your New Website Before Launch (Part II)
As much as you’ll be tempted to immediately launch your new website as soon as it’s built, there are a few crucial tasks you’ll need to cover to ensure your site’s success. In Part I of this series, we discussed the importance of planning and hosting a proofing session before the launch of your new website as well as emailing stakeholders afterward about next steps. In this article, we’ll provide guidance on managing new content/revisions and answering stakeholder questions as well as touch on troubleshooting and some additional advice.
Manage and Implement New Content and/or Revisions
You'll need to keep track of which stakeholders have and haven't completed their new content or revisions. Additionally, as you're collecting new content/revisions you'll need to ensure you have an effective system for managing it, prioritizing the most important content before launch and following up with stakeholders as needed.
Plan to email stakeholders a few days before the deadline if they haven't supplied new content/revisions yet. When you're asking this many stakeholders across campus for help, you're likely going to need to tap on some shoulders with an email reminder as the deadline approaches. In the email, feel free to reiterate why it's important to get their new content or revisions by the deadline, emphasizing the value of the website and its role within the university's larger mission.
For stakeholders responsible for critical content, you may need to send more than one reminder (and if you’re still having trouble getting them to respond, you may need to recruit the help of higher-level administrators). Also, it’s worth prioritizing some stakeholders above others. Here is our suggestion for prioritizing stakeholders during the proofing process:
Highest Priority - Stakeholders who are responsible for new content/revisions necessary for the website to launch.
Middle Priority - Stakeholders who are responsible for new content/revisions that would be ideal to have before launch but not necessary.
Lowest Priority - Stakeholders who are responsible for new content/revisions not applicable to the website (portal content, third-party website content, etc.).
Use a third-party platform or tool to help manage new content/revision submissions from stakeholders. You may want to create a spreadsheet in Google Spreadsheets, track submitted content on a platform like GatherContent, or collect content/revisions using SurveyMonkey. It's up to you. But you’ll need to develop an organized system for managing and tracking content from your stakeholders and making sure it ends up on the new website before launch. At a minimum, you’ll need to be able to track which stakeholders have submitted content/revisions and which ones haven’t.
For stakeholders who have submitted only a portion of their content, you may want to have a system for easily referencing what has been submitted and what you still need from them. For those who have submitted only some of the necessary content/revisions, make sure to follow up with them a few days before the deadline to let them know what exactly you still need from them (they may have incorrectly assumed they already submitted all required new content/revisions).
Tips for Healthy Stakeholder Relationships
Be prepared to run into “problem” or “difficult” stakeholders throughout the process. When you’re managing this many relationships, you’re inevitably going to hit some friction. One stakeholder may offer unsolicited design or strategy feedback during a proofing session. Another may complain about being too busy to submit content. And another may be upset they weren’t involved earlier in web strategy or design decisions.
Depending on the situation, don’t be afraid to pull in higher-level administrators for assistance. When a stakeholder isn’t cooperating or is complaining about not having been involved earlier in the web project, this is where you might need to pull in the assistance of other administrators.
For example, assuming you proceeded through your web strategy and design decisions with the approval of higher-level administrators, it should be fairly easy to communicate as much with a stakeholder (though, offer to do this in private—not during the middle of a proofing session). By clearly demonstrating you followed a thought-out plan for the web project—one signed off by high-level administrators—the stakeholder may back off from their unsolicited feedback and/or get over their lack of involvement in the project.
Yet, if this doesn’t help, you may need to seek out administrators who can step in (such as a dean in the case of a faculty member, or a manager or director in the case of a department staff member, etc.). Remember, your goal is to efficiently proof and launch your website on time—not get mired in campus politics.
Develop a plan for addressing stakeholders who are resistant to cooperating or who didn't meet the deadline with their feedback. You'll need to figure out how you're going to get that remaining content. Of course, if this was high-priority content—content that really should have been included before the launch—then you'll need to be persistent.
Additional Advice
While we’ve touched on the major steps to effectively proof your new website before launch, here is some additional advice that you might find helpful during the process.
Stakeholders to Involve in Proofing Sessions
It may not be necessary to invite each academic department or office to a proofing session. Meeting with the dean of a single college or school might eliminate the need to meet with chairs (and faculty) from departments under that college or school. You may also be able to combine departments into single proofing sessions (all science departments, all social science departments, etc.). With that said, below is a list of campus stakeholders that you’ll likely need to consider inviting to a proofing session. Keep in mind there may be others not listed here you should invite and there may be some not necessary to invite depending on your unique circumstances and needs.
Undergraduate Admissions
Graduate Admissions
Adult Degree Completion and/or Continuing Education Admissions
Schools and Colleges (School of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, etc.)
Academic Departments
University Advancement
Alumni Relations
Human Resources
Student Career Services/Offices
Student Life Services/Offices
Athletics
Library Services/Offices
Institutes/Centers on Campus
Financial Aid (Undergraduate, Graduate, and Adult Degree Completion and/or Continuing Education)
Office of the President/High-Level Administrative Departments
Resources to Help Manage Proofing
Below are a handful of platforms/services that can assist you throughout the new website proofing process.
Doodle (for scheduling meetings with stakeholders)
GatherContent (for managing the status of new content/revisions)
SurveyMonkey (for collecting new content/revisions)
Google Workspace Tools (includes Google Docs, Sheets, Forms, Calendars, and more to assist with various phases of proofing)
