How do you convince your boss that his website sucks?

May 25, 2005 10:10 AM

How do I convince my boss that our site needs a major overhaul?

I hate using and updating our site. I'm sure most of our users feel the same. It's got frames, it's poorly organised, there's far too much .pdf and .doc content, it comes nowhere close to standards compliance. I'd like to start from square one and get all this working in a good CMS. I can already see it in my head.

But as a poor technical communicator working for an old school, academic dragon, I'm having trouble verbally outlining the problems to my computer illiterate boss. He's dismissive of technology in general (he harbours an irrational grudge against Google), though he does recognise the value of having some sort of website. I've decided to write a memo summing up the site's problems and outlining the benefits of a new system.

So my question: Could anyone share experiences of communicating the benefits of standards compliance and other web issues with such people? With reference to our site, can you think of any benefits of switching to a good CMS which a non-technical authority figure would latch onto?

Many thanks.

posted by godawful to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Discussing web standards with someone who hates Google is, in a single word, impossible.

Try and get some users other than yourself together and write up a proposal that builds on their complaints and offers real solutions to those problems. Include screen shots of mockup solutions, detailing what was wrong, what was fixed, and why it was fixed in the way it was.

Definitely stay away from discussing web standards as a philosophy, this will get you nowhere fast.
posted by odinsdream at 10:25 AM on May 25, 2005

Can you document statements from customers/clients/co-workers trying to find information relevant to their jobs that the current site is slowing them down?

Ditto odinsdream. Don't mention standards. Talk about saving money through saving time and not driving away customers.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 10:40 AM on May 25, 2005

As much as possible, I'd stay away from the problems with the current site, and just show your boss the fantastic new things you can do. Back that up with things users have asked for that you are adding.

Any mention of problems is going to make him defensive, and you need not go directly there--go around it. Present it as a gift from an enthusiastic employee that will provide stuff that users have been wanting. An "I know you don't like doing this stuff, but I love it--can I take a shot?" might go a long way.
posted by frykitty at 10:42 AM on May 25, 2005

Whatever you decide to do, at least let visitors know "what this site is" on the home page. You can tell your boss that I have no idea what Europaevm is or does, or why I'd want to look further into your site. (I'm not carping at you, please understand.)
posted by Joleta at 11:14 AM on May 25, 2005

If you don't have the credibility with your boss to get him to take the problem seriously, find someone who does.

This means, first, networking within the company, finding and making friends with the people who know and care about website design.

Second, get to know the site really well, making yourself the expert on where to find things.

Third, network with the outside clients -- those who have clout with your boss. Sound them out, in a neutral way, about the website: "Have you been to our website? What did you think? Do you have any problems? How could we improve it?" You need to be careful not to give the impression that you have an agenda.

If you do this right, you can put the idea into the mind of one of these people (as if it's his/hers) to call up your boss and say, "Say, I was on the website and couldn't find a thing. It really needs a better design."

In the meantime, you and your interior network have been thinking about how to make improvements (drawing on your expertise) and will have a list of ideas and a new structure ready when your boss passes the complaint along.
posted by KRS at 11:41 AM on May 25, 2005

Can you:

1) Conduct any quick and dirty usability testing to quantify the problems (9 out of 10 users can't find X)

2) Point to any site stats that show a steady decline in visitors or a high percentage of single time visitors (no repeat traffic)

3) Show what competitors/similar sites are doing (jealousy can be a great motivating factor)

4) Mock up something better and do a side-by-side comparison to visually show benefits of a redesign
posted by Otis at 11:43 AM on May 25, 2005

Having seen the site, I think usability testing may go a long way. If potential cutomers/users/clients (i didn't look at it closely :) ) are being turned away before you can tell your story, then the site is a barrier.

Get a copy of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think -- he gives some examples of quick-and-cheap usability testing strategies. Apparently his next book will be an in-depth writeup of these techniques, but you may not be able to wait that long :)

good luck
posted by misterbrandt at 11:55 AM on May 25, 2005

Also, if you do decide to touch on web standards at some point in the discussion, here are a couple of links that put web standards into a framework of: "here are some techniques to lower development cost, reduce maintenance costs, improve usability and accessibility" :
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000266.php
http://www.webstandards.org/learn/reference/web_standards_for_business.html
http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developing_with_web_standards/
posted by misterbrandt at 12:01 PM on May 25, 2005

Approach it in the language he will understand, instead of trying to teach him a new one. Instead of approaching it from a technical or philisophical standpoint, take a financial or marketing tack.

-- Talk to the fact that rebuilding the site will make it leaner, which means less bandwidth.

-- It will make it easier to use, which mean users will find what they are looking for faster, which will make a better impression regarding your brand.

-- It will make the site easier to maintain, which means that some perectage of the X hours you used to waste updating the site, can now be used for Y.
posted by o2b at 1:07 PM on May 25, 2005

Oh, since you're in the UK, there may be something to making it accessible, since the laws are broader there than in the US.
posted by o2b at 1:08 PM on May 25, 2005

If he's Google adverse, he's probably web wary. You even hint to his begrudging acceptance that a web site is indeed important.

View him as a client. Clients often don't care if their site meets web standards--they rarely concern themselves with "clean HTML" and structure/presentation separation. They want you to make them feel warm and fuzzy.

First, find out what he does like and doesn't about web sites. Cater to those. Sell him. Then when you rebuild the site, make it standards compliant, yadda, yadda.

For a neo-Luddite, refrain from using technical jargon. Instead of "CMS", say "John, the newsguy can update the web." Make the technical real to your boss.

Joleta hit on something key. Often, clients realize a website is important. However, they don't know why. They don't ask the hard question: why?

Why does Europaeum have a site? As a passing user (I may or may not be your target audience), Europaeum means nothing to me. After skimming the Preview section, I found this nugget:

The Europaeum exists to foster collaborative research

Golden. If you really want to explore something exciting--probably a harder sell--show your boss online collaboration. Basecamp? MeFi? Something with a thriving community which lends itself in concept to support Europaeum's goal. Show him how the web could become not just useful to your organization, but invaluable.

Probably more than you want to bite off. Just an idea...
posted by pedantic at 1:13 PM on May 25, 2005

Any mention of problems is going to make him defensive, and you need not go directly there

That's important enough to be worth saying slightly differently: use ONLY terms and phrases like "improvements", "enhancements", an "even better" site, etc. When your boss asks "What's wrong with the way things are", don't answer him directly - just say that you have some ideas that will make it much better.

Yes, it's tough to get out the mindset (at least in public) that the site sucks, now - but there are huge advantages to talk about reduced work for internal staff doing updates, while NOT saying that the current site takes too much of their time; to talk about how much better the site would be to external users, while NOT saying anything bad about the way the site is now.

In short, talking about advantages of changing the site (in language your boss understands, as mentioned above) can be done without denigrating the current site. If you can pull that off (tough, but doable - chanting a mantra, mentally, might help here), you're halfway home.
posted by WestCoaster at 6:22 PM on May 25, 2005

Here's a little document I put together a while ago about the importance of professional presentation as it applies to business.
posted by Hankins at 6:13 AM on May 26, 2005