

You’ve got buy-in from institutional leadership, you’ve researched and selected a best-fit partner (ahem) for it, and you’ve gotten a green light from procurement to move forward. You’re beginning to dream in primary and secondary brand colors and are ready to talk design ideas …
Pump the brakes for a moment, and let’s talk discovery.
The discovery process is where the magic begins. Don’t give up your shot at finding that magic.
For your partner agency, discovery is the process of getting immersed in your institution. However, we recommend that you take a step back and think about how the process benefits you — how you can leverage this part of the project to serve your strategic objectives.
We believe discovery has three potential benefits:
You might be wondering who needs to be a part of this first phase of the project, or why it’s important to involve colleagues outside of your core project team. Engaging the folks who bring your campus to life will help to highlight what sets your institution apart from your competitors.
By putting a few simple measures in place, you can help to facilitate productive, enlightening, and fun stakeholder engagement sessions.
Think about both the project’s formal and informal champions. Which up-and-comers have the drive and ambition to see this project succeed? Who will help to paint the most accurate picture of what it’s really like to attend your institution.
At a minimum, you will want to involve students, school leadership, faculty, and administrators who can share their insider perspective on your institution’s culture, community, and campus life. Key questions to consider:
Spending a little time preparing participants for these sessions can go a long way.
Ask your partner agency to prepare purpose statements and potential questions in advance of each stakeholder session so you can share them in advance. This way, participants will know what to expect and can prepare for fruitful and purposeful conversations.
An important goal of stakeholder engagement sessions is to uncover potential issues and opportunities the website redesign project will need to address. Take a moment to reflect on how your presence may affect how participants share feedback and how you’d like to be involved. Would you prefer to be an active participant and attend each session? Or would you prefer to create a more confidential space for participants to voice their thoughts? There is no right or wrong way to stay engaged in the process, but it is always helpful when you have had a chance to be intentional about it.
The discovery process can lay the groundwork for active participation and engagement. It can be the catalyst for a new spirit of communication and collaboration, a chance for people to feel and know they’ve been heard, and an opportunity for you to begin talking about long-standing governance issues in a relatively safe and nonconfrontational setting. Don’t give up your shot.
Lindsey Waldrop Director of Web Strategy Lindsey Waldrop specializes in developing and implementing ideas that elevate brand awareness through strategy, storytelling, and rich user experience across all touchpoints. She is a connector at heart and enjoys helping colleges and universities discover new ways to engage the hearts and minds of future students and their families.