Hello, this is Kawarazaki from the operations team.
It's been about three and a half years since I joined the operations team in April of this year. I'm approaching mid-career within the company, but the operations team was only recently established, so I'm considered a veteran within the team. (I'm sorry to say that I've only been with the company for three and a half years.)
I initially joined the company as a designer, but before I knew it I was involved in a variety of operational tasks in addition to design.
We work on a wide range of projects, including e-commerce sites for cosmetics for women, restaurants whose menus change almost daily, and fashion e-commerce sites. We handle a wide range of projects, from corporate sites to e-commerce sites. (Please see this article for more information on the types of projects the operations team is involved in.)
As I gained experience in a variety of operational tasks, I thought daily about what was required of me as the party requested to operate a website and what skills were required.
Based on those experiences, I would like to write about my own ideal image of a webmaster.
What skills are needed to operate a website?
When I work as a consultant for investment management projects, I often hear the following requests from clients.
- The production company we used to use for operations made a lot of mistakes, so we are looking for a company that can provide stable operations.
- We outsource the design and coding of our website to different production companies, so we are looking for a company that can do both in one go.
- Looking for a production company that can handle sudden daily update requests
- We want you to understand our services and operate them, including through site improvement measures.
Although what is required may vary depending on the content of the request, I have been involved in the operation of many different websites while responding to various requests. Among them, I have summarized the operational skills that I think are essential.
The author, Kawarazaki, believes that 5 skills are necessary for a webmaster
1. Ability to understand the site structure in detail
First of all, as a webmaster, you need to understand the site structure better than your client.
- What information is on which page?
- How many pages are there?
- Is the flow within the page appropriate?
If you understand these things, when a request for an update comes in you will be able to quickly determine which page is being requested, and you will be able to respond quickly even when a sudden request comes in.
It also enables us to discover pages that need updating other than the specified areas and make suggestions to the customer.
2. Understanding of services and products
The next important thing is to understand the client's services and products.
Especially when operating an e-commerce site, you need a deep understanding of the products because you sell them directly from the site.
When it comes to managing a site, it is important to understand the strengths and services of each site (company) and then think about how to incorporate these into content, such as creating product descriptions, banners, and copy for creating landing pages.
Even if the webmaster does not write the manuscripts themselves, they need the ability to judge whether the writing about the products and services on the current site is appropriate.
3. Identify your target users
Who are the target users who will be viewing and using this website? By understanding that, you will be able to operate the website in a way that is more suited to your purpose.
For example, is it for BtoB or BtoC? It is also important to understand your target from various aspects, such as the user's gender, age group, and inclinations, and to operate the site with the awareness of "Will this service make people want to use it?", pretending to be the target of the site.
4. Ability to understand design tone and incorporate it into creativity
When disseminating information via a website, it is necessary to properly understand the design tone of the site and incorporate it into your creativity.
When adding pages, creating banners, or creating landing pages, make sure the colors, font size of headings, illustrations, and photos you are using do not harm the branding of the site. By understanding these things and producing your work, you will be able to maintain the quality of your site and make appropriate updates and page creations.
Even if the webmaster is not a designer themselves, I think it is necessary for them to develop the ability to judge and understand design tone in order to give instructions to other designers within the company.
5. Ability to meet delivery deadlines
This isn't a problem if there is ample time until the deadline, but when operating a website, there will inevitably be times when an urgent response is required.
When such an urgent request comes in, it is important to respond quickly and courteously.
In order to ensure stable operations even under sudden deadlines, Monosus always assigns two or more staff members to each site so that even urgent requests can be dealt with quickly.
What is required is to "produce results for the site"
The five skills mentioned above are essential for meeting the "requests" of our clients, and are what our operations team has been working on thus far.
However, going a step further, I believe that the "skills required for future website management" are to think beyond the client's requests and "understand the purpose of the site and produce results."
So what should we do to achieve this result?
I believe this is the ability to suggest improvements that will put the PDCA cycle into motion on the site .
Unlike paper or video, a website is a medium that can be updated. Therefore, I think it is important to keep in mind that there is no fundamentally "finished form" when operating it.
It is important to pay attention to whether the content posted meets the needs of the time and to always be able to find areas for improvement. This is why it is important to place importance on how to operate the site using the PDCA cycle.
I believe that the true meaning of operating a website is to work together with the client with the mindset of considering (Plan) , implementing (Do) , verifying (Check) , and improving (Action) the improvements to the website. (Please see this article for a brief look at the PDCA cycle as viewed by the operations team.)
Looking at it this way, the ability to "operate a website" is an important "skill" just like design and coding.
As a creator, we tend to focus on the actual production process, but it is really important to "produce results and achieve the site's goals." It's not just about creating a cool design or beautiful coding, but also about how to make the site come alive according to the site's purpose.
I feel that this way of thinking is very important as a webmaster representative.
In addition, I feel that there are few web production companies that can handle not only design and coding but also the PDCA cycle, so I believe that our ability to handle everything from improvement proposals to coding is a strength for Monosus and for our operations team.
"I pretend to be a member of the client's company , understand the company's services and products , and as a professional web designer , incorporate information into the site in an appropriate format and produce results that match the site's objectives ."
This is my ideal image of a webmaster.
While writing this article, I was reminded that operations require a wide range of skills.
Although I don't currently possess all of these skills, I will continue to work hard to get closer to this ideal.
KAWARAZAKI Taira