Planning and Strategy
Strategic planning is the foundation for building websites and web applications that grow with your organization and drive real results.
At COLAB, we partner with marketing teams to uncover the right path forward. From aligning on business goals to architecting a user-centered experience, our planning process ensures every decision is purposeful, scalable, and backed by experience. Because we’ve guided companies through rebrands, mergers, and moments of rapid growth, we know how to design for what’s next, not just what’s now.
Areas of Expertise
Not every engagement includes every deliverable, but for comprehensive initiatives like a redesign or platform consolidation, here are some examples of what we may do in our strategy engagement:
Discovery
Vetting assumptions, asking the right questions, and clarifying business needs so we can recommend the right solution.
Strategic Planning
Determining which initiatives will create the greatest impact for your organization—today and down the road.
Data Insights and Analytics
Studying user behavior data points to identify both visible and invisible opportunities for iterations and enhancements
Product Roadmapping
Defining a vision for implementation that aligns with business objectives and scales as you grow.
Generative AI Strategy ✨
Supplementing strategic plans by harnessing best-in-class models to build better products more efficiently
Information Architecture (IA)
Defining a vision for implementation that aligns with business objectives and scales as you grow. Related to content strategy.
Product Management
Studying user behavior to uncover both visible and hidden opportunities for smarter decisions and better results.
Stakeholder Management
Assisting in any of your internal discussions, to provide insights or help manage expectations
Wireframe and Prototyping
Mapping out the structure, layout, and functionality as a blueprint for content creation and visual design work
Planning and Strategy Engagements
We’re happy to support specific initiatives with our strategic capabilities. Here are a few ways clients can engage with us:
Launching A New Website
If you are rebranding, creating a new company, or consolidating acquisitions under a single identity, you can hire us to launch your new website.
Website Redesigns
If you want your website to achieve better results or simply reflect your organization accurately, you can hire us to redesign your website.
Proactive Support
If you want a true partnership that continuously improves your website, you can hire us to proactively support your website.
Scope Definition
If you want to understand what an appropriate scope looks like for your website, you can hire us to help plan your project.
Audits & Assessments
If you know something’s broken, but don’t know what, you can hire us to audit a part or all of your site (e.g. UX/Design, CMS/Administrative Experience, Code, Infrastructure, QA, Analytics, etc.) and make recommendations on what needs to be done.
RFP Writing
If you need help developing a quality RFP to find excellent candidates for a website redesign, we can help you define what this looks like in terms that will return quality candidates.
15
years creating digital strategies
200+
websites and web applications planned and executed
100s
of happy clients
Planning and Strategy Process
We listen and ask questions to understand your business and how the website plays into your vision of success. If you have a well-defined marketing strategy, we’ll plan for the website to drive it forward. If not, we’ll help you make one! Our experience building and your teams’ company knowledge come together to form data points that we use to create an effective website plan optimized for your budget.
When we start working together, it all begins with a plan. We call our planning process “Vision Setting.” Here’s how it breaks down:
1
We get your dedicated COLAB team up to speed on what’s been discussed during the sales process.
2
We onboard your team to our tools and practices so you have a transparent view of the work we’re doing.
3
Each of our subject matter experts reviews your known needs and then researches opportunities to discuss during our time together.
4
We ask direct questions to understand what drives your business and your current pain points.
5
We bring in other members of your team, as needed, to clarify or provide more technical information.
6
Our team forms a recommended approach based on what we’ve heard from your team, what you need, and where your company is headed. The resulting plan (a.k.a. product roadmap) will transparently show what we’ll work on, when, and what you can expect.
FAQ
Every agency is different! We typically work in iterations, meaning we simultaneously tackle small chunks of work. If you’ve heard of agile development, we generally do something similar. We do all the work required for a single component or feature to minimize waste. Once the iteration is complete, we show you what we’ve done. At this point, you will have a piece of the work that is complete enough to put in front of customers and provide the business with value.
Maybe! The work we do during our planning and strategy is very focused on delivering a website that gets you results. If the other work you have done doesn’t have that specific context, it may not help us create an effective website. We will absolutely review the work and incorporate it whenever we can. This preparation will most likely let us move more quickly, but it isn’t a one-to-one equivalent to the deliverables we need to do the work in most cases.
Did you know…?
88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience? Our takeaway: make every impression to count.
