No matter how reputed and skilled the web development team is, they can never live up to your expectations and cater to your needs if you fail to communicate properly. Explaining the requirements of your website is the first step towards earning tangible business results once the dev lifecycle is completed. Suppose there is any gap in the communication between you and the dev teams. In that case, the roadmap created for the software development lifecycle will be incomplete and may lack key points and areas that need to be enhanced or developed. Hence, the outcome will never be aligned with your goals and objectives and the initial design or idea you had in mind.
Owing to this, establishing streamlined communication between the teams and eliminating silos are of utmost importance. But the question is, how can you improve the communication flow and let the custom web development company know all your website’s requirements efficiently and effectively? If you are in a conflict about establishing seamless communication or relaying your ideas and goals properly to the web development team, below is a guide to help you design a comprehensive requirement discussion routine. With this, you can rest assured that the gaps in communication and understanding will be minimized significantly.
Define the goals and purposes clearly
You should clarify your website’s main goal, like whether it needs to be an eCommerce website or a portfolio site for public usage. That’s because the wireframe design and technical workflows will depend on the website type to be created. Also, you should define your target audience and outline their preferences and behavior patterns so that the dev team can create a proper project roadmap for delivering optimal user experience.
Create an accurate project brief
A proper project brief is necessary to increase the efficacy of communication between you and the custom website development company. It should contain key details, like the timeline, budget information, business goals and objectives, and any special preferences for the website design and the functional workflow.
The project brief should also contain your vision of its feel, like whether you want the UI to be more formal and suitable for the corporate world or would like to have a minimalist layout with visually appealing design elements. On top of everything, outline the key features that you need in the website, like a search bar, number and purpose of web pages, contact form, social media integration, payment gateway integration, and many more.
Prepare some references if applicable
To ensure the communication between you and the development team is streamlined accurately, you should have some references prepared beforehand. This can help the dev team to identify your competitors and design a roadmap that will provide your business a competitive edge. Also, you need to define your preferences about the website layout, color schemes, visual designs like animations and 3D objects, device responsiveness, and other unique features.
Be clear about content style and requirements
Since content is one of the key elements that can either make or break your website, specifying your preferences for the same is imperative. You should specify the content needs for the website, including the tonal quality, textual and visual content types, and other forms of downloadable content. Apart from this, your in-house content marketing team should clearly outline the SEO requirements that need to be met during the web development phase.
Specify the technical specifications and parameters
Coming to the technical part of the website development project, you should be clear about the platforms that offer maximum feasibility with your goals and objectives. For instance, specify the technologies and tools that you would like in the tech stack for the website, like Python, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flutter, and many more.
Apart from this, you should also define any need for database integration for storing records and information present on the website. If you require third-party integrations, do not forget to mention the same to the technical team of the custom website development company, including those of CRM tools, accounting software, ERP tools, and many others. Also, specify if the website needs to be mobile responsive or not as the tech stack will be further optimized accordingly.
Use a proper sitemap and workflow chart
You should also think about creating a detailed sitemap, which is nothing but a graphical representation of the webpages to be included and the connection between them. In other words, you will define the navigation flow from the landing page to other pages present so that the dev team can plan on establishing the connection through service calls, API implementation, or integration modular architecture.
Apart from this, you also need to define the workflow chart, like the actions that can be taken on each web page and the concerned functions to be performed. This will help developers to accurately design the technical control flow of the website and ensure proper results are achieved upon any user action taken on the interface.
Set achievable deadlines
You need to be very clear and firm about the deadlines with the custom website development company. Otherwise, it would create lots of cohesions and conflicts between you and the dev team going further. Apart from this, if the website is not developed on time, it may delay your marketing and promotion campaign plans and cause hurdles with users. That’s why it’s better to follow an agile methodology where the website development lifecycle will be segregated into smaller sprints, allowing faster development and testing cycles.
Use clear communication channels with proper documentation
Lastly, you need to define the permissible communication channels so that both your in-house members and the dev team members are on the same page. For instance, you should decide the communication tools to be used, like Microsoft Teams, Fresco, Zoom Call, and many more for different purposes. Apart from this, you should use project management software like Jira and ServiceNow to document every discussion about the dev project and track its progress in real-time with optimal transparency.
Conclusion
Here, we have outlined a few ways in which you can communicate your web requirements with the dev team and eliminate any silo or lack of transparency. All you have to do is find the best custom website development company that can adhere to your business goals and objectives and help you transform your vision into a real-life object or the developed website to be more precise. Only then you can assess whether your communication approach with the dev team was accurate and up to the mark or not.
