Too Many Cooks. The Top Real Reasons for Website Delays

Some projects take time, it is a fact of life. However, there are some projects that defeat the odds in the number of delays that can occur during a project.
Check out my real life anecdotes that have led to major delays in projects!
Read them, and weep…

1: Too many cooks…

This one really took the biscuit. After performing a hugely successful user experience phase leading to a great design, the project looked like it was on track for record delivery. The key stakeholder representative loved the vibrancy of the design and was keen to get this to the company board of management for approval and developed for an upcoming tender.
Cue tumbleweed. Weeks went by without any feedback or communication.

Vague, Vague, Vague

And then, completely out of the blue, a different company representative from the board called a meeting and subsequently rejected the design, only to present feature ridden examples of websites that completely dismissed the style guide and all the user experience data, replacing it with “I’ll have a bit of this and a bit of that please”.

Dazed & Confused

Confused and bewildered, our team recouped and decided to gather further information from that said representative. After communications that spanned weeks if not months, no further information was forthcoming after which we finally met with the original representatives.

Feud

It turns out that the whole website redesign sparked an internal feud between top management which took months to overcome.

Go-Live

3 years and 10 months later, the original management team finally met with us, and signed off a new logo and a new design (after having to rebrand after such a long delay). The project was delivered and we went live with their website after 4 years.
Since then the feedback on their site has been great.

Lesson #1: Be patient, as you may not know what the underlying issues are. Understand who the decision makers are and ensure your communications are being understood by all decision makers.

Steve @ Burning Fruit
CEO / UX Director