Growth-Driven Design (Part 2)

In Part 1 of our short series on growth-driven web design, we looked at how to get started with the right strategy by setting goals. Now it’s time to look at the site creation process and what happens afterward.

One thing you’ve learned by now is growth-driven design is going to mean continuous improvement of your site. This is really the crux of the entire process. Regardless, it’s only the beginning in using analytics to determine what you’ll do with your site later.

From Site Creation to Continuous Improvement

When it comes to using analytics, you’ll see how the “launch quick and improve” philosophy is really the best way to approach design.

Building a Launch Pad Website

The aim during the website creation phase is to get it live as quickly as possible based on your earlier preliminary features wish list.

This version of your site might not be perfect yet, though you’ll have all the fundamentals in place based on the personas you’ve put together and initial analytics. Typically, the launch pad version of your site is going to take place over a month’s time.

It’s during this one-month period when it becomes critical to decide what your site is going to look like down the road. Your one-month time window allows you 30 days to track user behavior and gather data on visitations.

A lot of this data gathering should occur in real-time so you can make changes immediately based on visitor demands.

Your Growth-Driven Design Cycle

Your next phase is going to take place over the next 11 months of the year, otherwise known as the GDD cycle.

During this period, you’ll be fine-tuning your site based on the data you accumulated above. Don’t stop gathering data, because you’ll have almost a year to keep improving your site based on how people respond to each change.

As a continuous improvement process, you’ll be doing this in four different stages. These stages are somewhat similar to what you did when planning your site.

The Planning Stage

First, you’ll be going through what’s commonly deemed the “sprint cycle.” The initial step in this is taking a focused metric and planning what you can do to make improvements. In a way, it’s like setting goals for your initial web design, except you’re going completely on real visitor reactions.

Once you come up with the highest impact ideas, you’ll prioritize these into a build sprint taking place over a specific period of time. It’s here where you’ll decide how long it’ll take to implement those site changes or new features.

Building New Features

Now it’s time to take action on creating new features your customers want. These require prioritizing based on how long it takes to implement them.

Remember that wish list from Part 1? Go back and revisit the list so you can tap into features you had in mind. If your metrics show customers want some of those features, you’ll have them already planned so you don’t have to take extra time to brainstorm.

The Learning Phase

After you bring those new design features to your site, it’s time to go back and check your metrics again to see what the reactions are from old or new visitors.

This process helps you see what’s working, and what isn’t. As part of the agile process, don’t hesitate to remove what isn’t working and continue to refine what is.

Having this data available helps you prioritize what you’ll add in the next sprint cycle.

Transferring Data to Your Company Team

Your last step is going to involve taking all the data you’ve gathered and share it with your entire team of employees. Transferring this data to all departments helps bring a unity to your company’s vision and what roles they’ll play in making your site continuously better.

Knowing what your marketing and sales team need, as just two examples, help inform what kind of approach and content you’ll place on your site over the next eleven months.

Contact us at ThinkFlame so we can use a growth-driven design process for your site as part of an inbound marketing strategy.