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The Making of a Web Team (Notes)
The document discusses the formation and operation of a web team at NC State University, highlighting the evolution of positions, processes, and planning within the team. It outlines challenges faced, strategies for hiring and collaboration, and the importance of team training and communication tools like Slack and Asana. The speaker emphasizes ongoing development and community growth, with a call to action for others to share their own experiences in building web teams.
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The Making of a Web Team (Notes)
- 1. @ncsumarit @oitdesign THE MAKINGOFA WEB TEAM Jen Riehle McFarland #highedweb16 #mpd8
- 2. ▸ The Makingof a Web Team ▸ The Positions ▸ The Processes ▸ The Planning ▸ No one has paid me for my opinions ▸ I like to use Storm Troopers to explain my points ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION st3f4n flickr #highedweb16 #mpd8 My goal is you leave with inspired and with ideas for how to get positions, how to improve your processes, how to make plans for the future of your team
- 3. 9/20141 full-timer 9/2015 3full-timers 4 part-timers/interns st3f4n flickr
- 4. ▸Started in theNC State Help Desk during undergrad ▸B.S. & M.S. from NC State ▸Self-taught in web design ▸Likes Star Wars ABOUT ME #highedweb16 #mpd8
- 5. ▸ Located inRaleigh, NC ▸ Land-grant college established 1887 ▸ 34,015 students; 2,336 faculty; 6,733 staff ▸ 11 colleges plus the Graduate School ▸ Go Wolfpack! ABOUT NC STATE #highedweb16 #mpd8
- 6. Major Campus Multisites Unit-level Multisites Stand-alone Single Installs+ Small Multisites OIT ORIED DASA OFA HR Free “Blogs” Environment Premium “Hosted” Environment Rest of campus…? ABOUT NC STATE WEB We are primarily a WordPress campus, but there is no mandate and plenty of other tools are used. - Slide displays pattern of campus WordPress installs we manage
- 7. ▸Housed in centralIT; part of Outreach, Communications & Consulting ▸Maintain major campus WordPress multisite environments ▸Build custom WP themes and plugins for campus general use ▸Web design, development, support, & training for campus-based clients ABOUT OIT DESIGN #highedweb16 #mpd8 - Many clients are in themes we did not develop - We often take over some from old units, grad students and/or off-campus vendors - For some we have a single, technically-literate point of contact; most client contacts are not “web” or “technical” staff
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- 9. ▸ October 2009:Web Hosting Service rolls out to campus ▸ 2012: Drupal & WordPress Services (free WordPress “Blogs” and premium “Hosted” environments) ▸ July 2013: Nick “the Drupal guy” leaves ▸ July 2014: Ross “the other Drupal guy” leaves A LITTLE HISTORY… 2009 2012 2013 2014 #highedweb16 #mpd8 - Web hosting cPanel interface means one-click installs of popular software: Drupal, WordPress, and others - WordPress services in July; Hosted Drupal in the spring of that year
- 10. ADD REQUISITE 3MONTHS… …to re-write position, get it through HR, complete interviews and get someone approved for hire.
- 11. OCTOBER 2014 ▸ HighEdWeb Portland & Leadership Academy ▸ Perspectives on Leadership ▸ Being More Strategic ▸ Governance Planning ▸ What’s next for you? ▸ Here’s Brian! ▸ Two WordPress people, OMG! #highedweb16 #mpd8 Other lessons: 1. Office politics 2. Everyone has more staff than you do Also learned a lot about the differences in Marketing Web shop vs. IT-based web shops.
- 12. AND IT WASGOOD st3f4n flickr Amazing. Joy throughout the land. The crowd goes wild. Consistency. Redundancy. Collaboration. But of course, you always want more…
- 13. FALL 2014 ▸More workcoming in all the time ▸Moving Drupal users to WordPress ▸New clients, including DASA (60+ sites) ▸New campus brand released ▸New OIT website #highedweb16 #mpd8 Lots of work; > new clients; moving people from Drupal to WordPress. 40% increase in income. More work than we can handle. Need more people.
- 14. HOW DO WEGROW? We have the clients. There’s a need for our services. How do we get positions in an era of hiring freezes and budget cuts? #highedweb16 #mpd8 How many of you have this problem? 3 things that worked for us to get staff.
- 15. 1. INTERNS st3f4n flickr - Hadone part-time student position available but tough to transition when new staff came in. - Spring of 2015, partially in response to us making noise about needing help, mandate from CIO to assist IT Club asking for an intern program. - TOUCHY SUBJECT. Interns are not the same as staff. Source of frustration that this was seen as a “solution” for us when really it’s more overhead & more work.
- 16. 2. LEVERAGE st3f4n flickr Example: Webteam lead gets a job offer at a competing institution to run their WordPress shop. I stayed, and was able to use this to finally convince my unit that we needed another position. Got 3/4 of a FTE/position. So…
- 17. st3f4n flickr 3. PARTNERSHIPSWhere tofind another 1/4 of a FTE/position?
- 18. NEW POSITION ▸ Jointposition with Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development ▸ “Lives” in our unit and reports to me ▸ Primary on ORIED projects, but Design team shares support ▸ Here’s Chris! ▸ We have three people! #highedweb16 #mpd8 - This was ideal for ORIED who have dozens of sites but their only web staff was a 3/4 FTE (with some outside vendor support). - Only costs them 1/4 FTE but gives them three more people.
- 19. 9/20141 full-timer 9/2015 3full-timers 3-4 part-timers/interns st3f4n flickr
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- 21. INTERNS st3f4n flickr First things first:have to “pay” for these interns. Part of responsibility with interns is to train them.
- 22. THE INTERN PROGRAM ▸Unit 1 Topics (Fall) ▸ Introduction to the NC State Web and WordPress (Sept) ▸Communications and Customer Service ▸Branding ▸ Security (Oct) ▸CyberSecurity Awareness Month ▸WordPress Security ▸ Advanced WordPress Administration (Nov) ▸ Unit 2 Topics (Spring) ▸ Data Security (Jan) ▸Campus rules ▸ Crisis and Change (Feb) ▸Communications ▸Project Management basics ▸ Accessibility & Usability (March) ▸ Documentation & Communications (April) #highedweb16 #mpd8 - Has this always gone to plan? Oh, no way. But we have done training on most of these topics, had campus communications staff present, or trained one-on-one. Sticking to the schedule is a challenge. ~50% of interns leave after one year - Year two: some stay and help train those incoming
- 23. TEAM BUILDING st3f4n flickr Concerns aboutbringing all these people together, training them, getting them used to working together
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- 27. TEAM BUILDING: COWORKING st3f4n flickr OFFICEHOURS - Work in our own offices. Co-working is in one shared space. Good time for joint work efforts, mundane tasks - Co-working also with other campus developers. Concept we’ve had in place on campus for several years. - Added office hours to this time so clients can come ask questions in-person
- 28. ▸ Client information ▸Meeting notes ▸ Project status updates ▸ Incoming help requests ▸ Known issues ▸ Awesome new ideas! ▸ Personal schedules SHARING IS CARING #highedweb16 #mpd8 Two people can yell info at each other pretty quick. Three people (plus interns) exponentially increases need for interactions.
- 29. TOOLS: SLACK - Theanswer to our organizational needs. - Started using in March of 2015; paid version in Oct 2015, for integration and records retention. - Custom Integrations: WP theme/plugin updates, new sites created in MU, run commands on managed environments, LDAP campus directory lookup, forms that dump into Slack, etc.
- 30. TOOLS: SERVICE NOW Noteverything goes into SN. Client emails still come to our own Google Group (also feeds into Slack). Working on creating with other SN integrations.
- 31. TOOLS: GITHUB We useWP Github Updater plugin to push our updates to Github to our WordPress environments
- 32. TOOLS: GOOGLE DOCS Googlecampus. Notes in Google can be shared into Slack for record-keeping.
- 33. TOOLS: ASANA Primarily usedfor PT-er projects.
- 34. TOOLS: WUNDERLIST Create liststhat match Slack channels. Use Stars to help “manage” daily to-do lists and export to Slack.
- 35. TOOLS: SLACK So whilewe still use other tools - sadly still need email - Slack has become the home base for sharing and collecting info. Can’t just improve processes by technology alone…
- 36. MEETINGS st3f4n flickr - 30-minute meetings.I hate 60-minute meetings. They are a self-fulfilling prophecy. - 1 OIT Design team meeting weekly; 1 Design/ORIED meeting
- 37. MEETING SPACE Rearranged office.Always at least 4 chairs in there. Maximized wall space for on-going planning and info-sharing.
- 38. JUST SAY “NO”TO TECHNOLOGY First rule of meetings: nobody talks about Fight Club. Second rule is no tech. Slinky is there because people like to have something to play with.
- 39. THE WHITEBOARD - Post-itsadded during the week for items to discuss. Review “action items” and “ideas” each week. - “The Thing” is our monthly maintenance task: user, plugin, theme, security, analytics, accessibility reviews, and other maintenance items that arise (not doing a great job with this).
- 40. THE CLIENT BOARD -Index cards for each client moved between “Upcoming”, “Current”, and “On-going/Maintenance” - Details on the back of the card: contacts, URLs, curiosities, etc.
- 41. DESIGNATED DISSENTER This isthe person responsible for unconventional thinking. Pushing us to reconsider the obvious answers. Hard to do - we take turns.
- 42. THE PLANNING PART THREE #highedweb16#mpd8 The requirement of leading a web team is that you always have to have the added joy of thinking about what’s next.
- 43. RETREATING - OCC Unitretreat: April; if you have the ability to coordinate with you parent unit I support that. We’re working on better communication and collaboration between our groups - Design retreat: August
- 44. RETREAT ▸August, 2016 ▸1/2 day;included Kim (ORIED) and David (PT-er) ▸Agenda ▸Myers-Briggs Test ▸Assessing the viability of our goals ▸Specific Fall 2016 semester goals ▸Evaluating our tools #highedweb16 #mpd8
- 45. N (INTUITION) S(SENSING) I solve problems by working through facts until I understand the problem. I am pragmatic and look to the "bottom line." I start with facts and then form a big picture. Sometimes I pay so much attention to facts, either present or past, that I miss new possibilities. I solve problems by leaping between different ideas and possibilities. I am interested in doing things that are new and different. I like to see the big picture, then to find out the facts. Sometimes I think so much about new possibilities that I never look at how to make them a reality. #highedweb16 #mpd8 It’s notable that we are ALL ‘N’s. This may account for some of our failures to do proper assessment, and our tendencies to jump into projects with both feet. We’re dreamers. Every staff meeting we come up with another big idea. None of us are ’S’ (sensing) so we need to make an extra effort to be more detail-oriented.
- 46. 1.) IMPROVE SOMEOF OUR HABITS 2.) WORK MORE/BETTER WITH OCC UNITS 3.) DEVELOP NEW CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS 4.) DEVELOP NEW TRAINING FOR CAMPUS 5.) CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORDPRESS COMMUNITY GOALS st3f4n flickr Other WordPress units, especially Outreach Technology (web applications and mobile development)
- 47. GOALS: NEW TRAINING st3f4n flickr -New classes for campus, built in part from our intern training: WP Security, Web Content Strategies - Dedicated training environment in development
- 48. GOALS: GROW THECOMMUNITY st3f4n flickr - Lots of NC State developers. Continue to build and educate the web developer community, keep co-working running - Encourage on-campus leaders/trainers - Contribute beyond campus: WordCamp Raleigh and WP Campus
- 49. GROW THE COMMUNITY https://wpcampus.org #wpcampus @wpcampusorg #highedweb16#mpd8 Check out the podcast!
- 50. Major Campus Multisites Unit-level Multisites Stand-alone Single Installs+ Small Multisites OIT ORIED DASA OFA HR Free “Blogs” Environment Premium “Hosted” Environment Rest of campus…? GOALS: NEW PARTNERSHIPS - Who else can we help? How can we continue to streamline campus web needs? - Maybe we won’t get another position out of this but perhaps part of a position? - Working more with the rest of OIT (people within even our own unit doing “their own thing” on the web)
- 51. GOALS: BIG PICTUREst3f4n flickr Improve habits. Get the “little” things done. #yearofdocumentation #yearofassessment
- 52. REMEMBER CHRIS? YEAH, HELEFT. #highedweb16 #mpd8 He’s dead to us. Just when you think you’re on a roll and ready to present on your success at a major conference… there are always challenges.
- 53. BACK TO TEAMBUILDING st3f4n flickr In the process of hiring someone new (interviews at 9am Thursday morning). Will have to work them into the team - this time into a team that already exists, with processes already in place.
- 54. GOALS: WORK WITHOCC UNITS st3f4n flickr - Chris moved to OCC Outreach Technology… NOT dead to us! - Actually makes some of our goals easier. We have an ally in that group who knows WordPress and how we work.
- 55. SUMMING UP… 1. Positions 2.Processes 3. Planning office politics office politics office politics human resources training campus policies communication management responsibilities time-management managing expectations crises turnover project management orientation deadlines requirements-gathering funding sources budgets new technologies new services relationships employee schedules priorities destroying dreams the unexpected scope creep justifying stuff #highedweb16 #mpd8 - You need these things to be able to build a successful web team. - Am I over-simplifying? Oh HELLLLL YEAH. - Are these three words alliterative and therefore hopefully catchy? YOU BET. - These are the things that were critical to get US through the first year. But they’re the tip of the iceberg. - And your experience may vary. WILL vary.
- 56. THIS IS MYSTORY… st3f4n flickr WHAT’S YOURS? - It’s not all pretty. I don’t love how some of it went down. But I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish for my campus and I’m going to keep working on it because I think we’re a huge asset to campus. - I hope each of you got something out of this that will help you develop your web teams.
- 57. BIG THANK YOUS! St3f4n(aka DocChewbacca) https://www.flickr.com/photos/st3f4n/ My Team(<3) #highedweb16 #mpd8 St3f4n (aka DocChewbacca) https://www.flickr.com/photos/st3f4n/ My Team
- 58. QUESTIONS? Jen McFarland, @ncsumarit #highedweb16#mpd8 OIT Design: https://design.oit.ncsu.edu Github: https://github.ncsu.edu/oitdesign WP Campus: https://wpcampus.org/ Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/ncsumarit/ OIT Design: https://design.oit.ncsu.edu Github: https://github.ncsu.edu/oitdesign WP Campus: https://wpcampus.org/ Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/ncsumarit/