My name is Kurihara and I work in the Creative Department at the Kamiyama Satellite Office.
Recently, I have been writing articles mainly about my life in Kamiyama and events related to my satellite work, but this time I would like to write about work for the first time in a while.
The main responsibilities of the creative department I belong to can be broadly divided into two: 1. Renewal of the corporate website 2. Website operation work (webmaster agency services) Today I would like to talk about the latter, "website operation work."
Corporate websites, personal blogs, social media, smartphone apps...there are so many websites in the world that it's impossible to keep track of them all, but even the pages that you look at on your smartphone while on the train to work are only made available to us after someone has thought up the page structure and text, designed and coded it, uploaded it to a web server, and then made it publicly available for us to view.
There are as many people updating websites as there are people on the web, and among them, we at "Webmaster Agency Services" work with corporate web managers to update and improve their websites. (For more information on our service, please see this article.)
When a client consults us about operational management, we first select dedicated members to create a team based on the client's order. We call this team the "operational structure," and today I would like to introduce from a management perspective the things we pay attention to when putting this structure together.
The whole team is a director
The operational structure varies depending on the scale of the project, but the basic team is made up of the following members: Director (progress management) Planner (content planning) Designer (design) Coder (coding)
I've written about four separate roles, but I think the ideal operational structure is one where there is no dedicated director. This means that everyone involved in a project should be a director, planner, designer, and coder.
The director's role is to understand the client's intentions and objectives, give instructions to planners, designers, and coders, and act as a liaison officer to coordinate various issues with the client. However, rather than consolidating this role in one person, having everyone take on the role at each phase makes it possible to manage progress more smoothly.
Of course, I think it is necessary to have a director who will lead the project (I call that the "main person in charge"), but I don't think there is a need for a full-time director who only does directorial duties. (※This is necessary when the scale of the project is large.)
The system on the left was in place when operations first began. The system on the right is the ideal system.
Operational work does not involve creating a website once and then being done with it; it involves working on a client's website over the long term.
To exaggerate a bit, I think the ideal relationship is like that of an elderly couple who are in perfect harmony with each other, where after repeated interactions, when the client asks you to "do this," you are able to grasp all the corresponding parts on the site and proceed with the project smoothly, while minimizing interaction with the client and bringing the project right up to the actual release.
To achieve this, it is important to "understand" the client. We believe that by having everyone involved in a case build up a mutual understanding with the client, a "tacit understanding" will be born.
In addition, by having everyone on the team take on direction, solutions to problems can be generated from each individual's perspective, which helps to achieve the client's intentions and objectives more effectively.
The content of the requests varies from minor ones such as replacing text to ones that require multiple people to work together to create a landing page. This is especially true for minor requests, but by having the people in charge of each phase (planners, designers, coders) communicate directly with the client, there are benefits in terms of man-hours, such as eliminating the need for directors to convey production instructions and the resources of directors to check the results.
1. Allocate sufficient resources to the "operational launch"
The first is to allocate sufficient resources from the time we receive a request to the time we establish an operational flow. Specifically, we aim to assign a dedicated director with extensive experience.
We call the period from the start of an operation project until operations are running smoothly the "operational start-up." By assigning a highly experienced director to this initial construction period, it becomes possible to carefully understand the client's requests, share them with the entire team, and create the flow of operations and rules.
This is true for most cases, but even if you have heard about the request beforehand, once the case actually begins, there will be a series of items to check. It is necessary to check each item one by one and correctly understand the background (why is that the policy? Is that the response?). By correctly understanding the why, you will be able to understand the client's internal circumstances and the system situation, and make appropriate decisions regarding problems that may arise in future operations.
If you only understand things partially and proceed with your own interpretation, it can lead to big differences in perception later on. For this reason, it is necessary to allocate sufficient resources to the start-up phase and assign a director who can see things from the client's perspective and guide them at times while better understanding the other party's intentions and goals.
With a director with a lot of experience setting the course for the project, team members can steadily handle requests from clients, gain experience, and eventually be able to handle the situation without a dedicated director. This is the goal of "operational launch."
Our designers and coders make it a point to share information on a daily basis, such as the content of requests and how to respond .
2. Create a system that takes future operations into consideration
Once the initial "start-up phase" begins to progress smoothly, we will begin thinking about creating a system with an eye to the future.
It is necessary to consider a system that will ensure stable operation while taking into account the skills of the team members, but the director from the "start-up phase" mentioned above will shift his role at this point to take on the additional tasks (such as renewals and improvement proposals outside the scope of operations, large-scale renovations, etc.) that are separate from regular requests as a project manager.
To achieve this, it is important for the initial director to select and train a candidate for the main director at an early stage. It is also necessary to hand over the direction of each phase to the planners, designers, and coders, and expand the scope of each person's involvement in the project.
The important thing is to think about "what kind of structure should we have when the operations have stabilized" at the beginning of an operations project. By keeping that in mind, it becomes clear how to build a team and how to develop the skills of the members.
Of course, as we proceed with a project, we may find that we need a different structure than the ideal we had in mind. Client orders change every day, and sometimes things become clearer as we deepen our understanding of the project. We need a flexible structure that can respond to those changes, but I think it's important to first determine the direction.
Although the term "operation" is used in a word, there are as many ways to respond as there are websites as there are stars in the sky. The content introduced here is a really basic way of thinking, but I think that the ability to flexibly customize without wavering from this is where our skills as a "Webmaster Agency Service" can be shown.
KURIHARA Tsutomu