The project based model has been the standard method for building a website ever since Tim Berners-Lee booted up his first web server in 1989.

The model looks something like this:

You decide your company needs a website. You approach a web designer or developer and outline your requirements for the site. They will then interpret those requirements and come up with a site map and design, and provide you with a price for the work. Then they disappear for a few months and build it. Once the work is complete, the site goes live and the project is complete!

Except… you’ve had some other ideas in the time since the project started and was completed. Your customers are not interacting with the site the way you had hoped. So you go back to your developer. They want more money to re-design the site, or worse, they’ve moved on to other projects and don’t have time for your updates.

So now you’ve got a website that your company spent a lot of money on and doesn’t work quite how it should.

This is the problem that Growth Driven Design solves. In fact, I’m so convinced that it’s the right way to do things, that I’ve adopted it as my default method for all website projects.

“Sounds great Ben, but seriously… what are you blathering on about?”

Good question! Essentially, the project-based web design model is broken. You can’t design a site that works at it’s optimum level if you don’t have the data to inform your design. Of course, you can’t get that data until you have a website that your customers are using. Classic chicken and egg stuff. So with project-based design, you’re essentially asking your designer to make their best guess of how things should work, with the hope of correcting the inevitable deficiencies later.

Growth Driven Design takes a different approach, and requires thinking about your site in a different way. I’ve always tried to get my clients to think of their websites as an organic thing, rather than “set and forget”. The GDD model really just bolsters that concept. Essentially, it means not thinking of your website design or re-design as a finite project, but rather an ongoing, data driven process. It looks something like this:

An initial “launch-pad” site is designed and built containing only your essential “must haves”. This site only contains your company’s core-elements. This should take no longer than 2 -4 weeks from signing a contract.
The site is made live and visitor data can then be analysed and processed, meaning we can form an image of how your customers are using the site.
Over time, new features are designed and implemented based on that data.
Analysis continues.
Each week / month / quarter, new features can be added, each time based on the actual, real data that we’ve been able to gather.
With this method, you get site that has been built against real data. Data from *your* customers, not somebody else’s. But what does it cost?

Well, I don’t do GDD websites on a fixed cost. Instead, I provide a time estimate for the initial “launch-pad” site, and this is charged in the form of an upfront retainer based on my usual hourly rate. We can then set a budget for each week, month or even year to analyse and design new features. It’s an ongoing process that gives you the freedom to bite off smaller or larger chunks as your time and budget permits, and also means that you get a site that works for your business in an ongoing, organic capacity. You’ll also find that you spend less, have the freedom to work as your cashflow allows and still get exactly what you need.

If you’d like to know more about GDD, please get in touch!