As a follower of Agile development and Lean Manufacturing, I am drawn to the philosophy behind these processes. When it comes to websites, simplicity is important both in the user experience (how a site looks) and in the development process (how a site is built). When we visit a website that is overwhelming with too many goals and missions, we feel an actual physical response to the suffering the organization experienced while creating the website.
This suffering manifests itself in a site design which is busy and confusing. As a user, we don't know where to look, we don't know the priorities for the website (often in great part because the company can't decide either). Or the site content competes with itself for marque billing -- the equivalent to everyone shouting -- at which point the user tunes everyone out.
When an organization has too many goals or loses site of its goal for the website, chaos occurs in the design. And therein lies the problem -- without getting into a big commentary of cultural issues) -- goals are arbitrary. Goals are internal but not about the user or the experience. Yet, most website development processes are based on goals (i.e. "We need to launch a new homepage design next month"). Focusing a development process purely on goals is comparable to having a fundraiser when you don't know how much money you need, or what you plan to buy in the future. You might laugh, but I've seen this happen.
So the first step in the process is to ask "Why do we need this?"
From this idea emerged a development approach I affectionality call the Question Driven Process, which focuses on creating a good process which results in better products.
About the Question Drive Process
The Question Driven Process approaches development by asking questions to determine a direction for each stage of development, instead of setting goals. In keeping with the Lean idea of "Just in time" the QDP only solves problems it needs to address in the moment and as they emerge. The typical "Big Build" or Waterfall Process of solving all problems upfront is expensive and ineffective; too many features are created without knowing what the user wants, which results in an overbuilt site.
Instead, the Question Driven Process focuses on minimizing expense for the entire team, improving efficiency, and learning quickly by framing each release around on one or two core questions. Here are some examples of the QDP in action...
1. When developing a new website, the first most critical question to ask is "what's the least amount of work we can do to launch this site and see if people get the idea?" This alone will save months of work and endless expense.
2. For existing websites we test a few smalls elements at a time with a specific question for each test, such as "Can we increase traffic on our site by changing the link color?"
Implementing a Question Driven Process
To improve something on your website, or when creating a new site, begin from the choosing the basic starting point. Take one tiny step. Start with a question that will drive all the choices for that first step. In the example above: "What's the least amount of work we can do to launch this site and see if people get the idea?" Using something like Squarespace or Wordpress, create a simple site in a few hours (minimal expense), then test with an informal audience to see if they get the idea? Or even better, sketch out the idea on a napkin and give it to a few friends. Be willing to throw the idea away.
Once you have your answer, either abandon, run another test with a different strategy, or move to the next step and create a new question. For example, "How much money will this website make if we use an affiliate program?" And so on, until you reach your goal (whatever that might be, or become).
The hardest part in applying the Question Driven Process is not the complexity (its a simple process), the hard part will be restraining the natural desire to diverge or brainstorm, become attached to ideas and oversolve. Once attachment happens, ideas harden, and flexibility can be lost. Maintain a "healthy sense of detachment" using the Question Driven Process and let development inform the evolution.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:43PM 
