Building Your I-Team

Greg McGee can always tell when a business has a well-orchestrated team running its Web site. “The site stays fresh and relevant to its audience,” says McGee, the director of business development for Minneapolis-based Web design firm Bswing. “If I go to the site on a regular basis and the content is always fresh, then I would conclude that it’s run by a crack Web team internally.”

Although the final product of a strong Web team can be easy to spot, recognizing the right individuals to include on the team isn’t always as easy. Marketing and IT are usually involved, but the mix of stakeholders depends on the business objectives for the Web site.

"It's very important to build yourself into the team, to know what is expected of you."

“You need to decide what the Web means to your business,” explains Kristina Halvorson, owner of Brain Traffic, a St. Paul-based Web copywriting and content strategy firm. “If your site will basically be a press kit, you need more marketing people [involved]. The team ties into the strategy of the site.”

Experts concur that there are a few guidelines that apply to almost all internal Web teams. Assembling the key stakeholders early in the development process is crucial, as is designating a point person for the project. Striving for harmony among competing interests can make the process run smoothly. And asking for outside help allows team members to focus on what they do best instead of trying to do everything themselves.

Key Players

Choosing team members is the first challenge. Marketing employees usually play an important role, because most Web sites are tasked with promoting the company’s brand.

“In every instance, marketing people need to be involved,” Halvorson says. “What people experience on the Web site helps create their impression of the brand of the company.”

IT staff and their technical expertise are also crucial to a successful Web team; the best content in the world means nothing if it’s hard to access or clunky for users. “Users develop opinions and emotional responses to a brand based on their experience on the site,” Halvorson says. “If you make [content] difficult to find, that affects their response to the brand. So IT should really be involved in every instance as well.”

Rick Prendergast, the vice president and managing director of Tenth Floor, an interactive marketing and software management firm in Minneapolis, says that the president, CEO, or CFO should also be involved in Web processes. “It’s good to have representation from that group to ensure continuity between the Web site and the overall business strategy,” he says.