3 Biggest Mistakes a Website Development Project Manager Can Make

*Updated July 2021*

Clients and projects of all sizes and stress levels will test a project manager, challenging them to prove effective organizational skills and strategic thinking during all stages of the project. How a project manager responds to these challenges will separate the “good” project managers and the “great” ones. 

It’s important to note: you WILL make mistakes. Small ones. Huge ones. You’ll have to have those uncomfortable conversations with a client to let them know that you (or someone on your team) has made an error. As the face of the client relationship, it’s on the project manager to take the fall and maintain that relationship. The big question is, how will you recover? 

Mistake 1: Fail to Create a Relationship with the Client from Day 1 

From the very first time a client is introduced to a project manager, the relationship begins building. The client will look at your LinkedIn profile and you’ll look at theirs. You’ll begin the project-related requests and pleasantry via email and try to set the stage for an informative, yet comfortable, initial conversation. 

From that moment forward, you’re using your personality and experience to win the client into believing that they’re in good hands, their project is incredibly important to you, and it’s going to be a killer website. They should believe this because it should all be true… and it’s up to you to sell them on that simple belief. 

As the project progresses, you must create trust with the client, stay organized, stay on time, and keep a *very* open line of communication with every step. Isn’t that how all relationships work— with trust and open communication? Communication and trust are the key elements to a successful client relationship. Once either has been broken, you must immediately jump into *fix* mode and clean up your mess. 

With a big or small mistake, follow a simple checklist to get back on track and ensure the client can trust you. 

• Communicate the issue and apologize
• Set the action plan to remedy
• Communicate every step of the plan to show you’re on top of it
• Written details of the issue and how it was resolved
• Communicate the resolution and why it will not happen again

Lesson: Mistakes will happen and the biggest one you can make is keeping it to yourself and trying to fix it alone. Drop the thoughts that you’re in this alone and be upfront with your client [and your team] about everything that’s going on. Create trust and always communicate with your client and these mistakes will seem less daunting to approach and fix. 

Mistake 2: Forget that content creation begins as soon as the strategy is approved

The redesign (or first-time design) of a website gives a client the fresh slate to update content. This detail often gets put on the back burner since clients do have full-time jobs outside of this website project. Because of this detail, help the client by starting to content well before you are ready to receive content from the client. 

Use a great tool to help clients and your team keep content organized, like Jumpchart or GatherContent. Make sure that all parties involved (web dev, client, content writer) can see the current state of the content. Keep website content in one place to avoid multiple versions floating around and causing confusion. Closely monitor content generation to ensure NOTHING (text, images, pdfs, links) is overlooked. By collecting everything in one place, you feel and seem more organized to everyone involved. 

Also, if you start early, you can build in some keyword research for search engine optimization upgrades to content. 

Lesson: Content will always take longer than anyone thinks it will. Stay organized and get started as soon as you possibly can.

Mistake 3: Leaving your Timeline behind

You can create an awesome strategy and design for the client, but if you aren’t sticking to your to-do list, keeping the client on track with their action items within the timeline, and communicating updates with any timeline adjustments… you won’t get that raving testimonial you’re working towards! Send a weekly email or schedule a weekly call to share status updates. Be responsive. Feel like you’re over-communicating. Each client believes that their project is the most important and it’s your job to have them feel like you’re making it your top priority! Sure, you’ll get off track when your developer is out for a week on vacation or your client starts ghosting you for a week because they don’t want to admit they haven’t done their portion of the homework. It happens! Take responsibility and keep moving forward. Let the client know that there’s been an adjustment to the timeline and keep pushing forward. 

Lesson: Create a step-by-step timeline for both you, your team, and the client… and keep everyone accountable! Whether you’re on time or a little delayed, communication about the timeline to keep everyone in the loop should be your top priority! 

All in all, project management is successful when there is open communication, trust, and organization. Throw in some extra positivity and laughs, and the rest will fall into place.