This has been such a year of shifting focus, for several reasons, and as things started to settle I decided to attend WordCamp Manchester. Now I would attend as many WordCamps as I could get away with, if I could, and perhaps one day I will (oh, for such to be my job – how cool would that be!), but I cannot justify such jollies (for they are such, for me) at this time. However, they are brilliant for the energy; at each WC I’ve come away utterly enthused and energised, ready to shift up a gear with my business. So for that they are absolutely worth it.
But why do I want to speak? Well for me, being brim-full of imposter syndrome and insufficient confidence, it’s a challenge. And yet another part of me wants to share what I’ve learned, which is not inconsiderable now, having been at this website lark for almost 2 decades (good grief!). I like to learn from experiences, my own and others’, bring them together and share them. Such is the WordPress community ethos, pretty much.
At Manchester I’m talking about the Discovery process that is necessary for all projects. Too often a case of “do as I say, not as I do” in the past. And as well as my own times of falling flat on my face as a result of not getting to grips with all the things necessary before taking on a project, many other web designers and developers have had similar experiences. For all kinds of reasons – usually not anticipating the difference between what is in the clients’ minds and what is within their budget, which is not their fault but it is our problem. And many website creators have learned from this and put together their own discovery process. What I have done is researched this pretty thoroughly and talked with peers to create a base discovery list – as many of the things as I can think of might be needed. Of course it won’t be complete – things change all the time, clients have different needs, web bods have different ways of working. But to have a base from which to build, that’s going to be useful for some of us, at least.
One thing that has made me smile, while researching, is that my Internet marketing questionnaire from 2008 actually was a good starting point – I just should have insisted on using it for every project myself! 😉
And my excuse for Manchester (though I had intended going to Bristol and to Brighton this year) – my parents lived there for a year when I was a baby; my accent could have been really quite different.
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