When working with external clients, it’s easier to be direct, but internal politics can make it harder to get your point across. That’s why having data to back up every decision is crucial. For example, our sitemap was one of the top 10 most visited pages, and by visually showing how our top services were buried several clicks down, I was able to cut through the internal noise and show executives why this needed attention—despite their initial hesitation, since our previous site took 6 months and a tremendous amount to build.

Adjusting the service structure was a tough task since it required service line leads to consolidate and focus their offerings, which was complicated by personal agendas. To work through this, I conducted some card sorting sessions with numeric constraints on how many items they could place. This helped gather perspectives on the top services, categories and how they should be displayed, allowing us to find a middle ground.