How we do discovery and why it works: Part 2, Analyze

Part 2: Analyze

In part one of our Discovery Process series, we covered information-gathering techniques and the importance of having a good inspiration board.

Part two is all about what we do with the information we have.

• We know roughly what our client wants the final product to look and feel like, so we like to spend some time finding brands and companies that emulate that tone.
• We now know the primary goal of the website or project, so we can perform an SEO audit to find out what keywords, platforms, and practices need to be put into place for the client to succeed.

Let’s dive in.

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Competitive Audit

Checking out the best and worst from competitors allows us to see who's doing it well – and why – in their industry. It also allows us to expand our horizons as far as design and UX opportunities go. We usually compile this information in a slide deck, including screenshots and links, so that our whole team has access to it throughout the discovery process.

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SEO Audit

Some of our clients won’t already know the impact that good SEO can make, but we see this as a valuable part of the process. We want the spiffy new website our client is investing in to rank, right? So we need to find out what SEO practices are currently in place and what work still needs to be done. An audit is the best way to do this.

Interested in finding the right SEO platform for you? Check out our blog to find the answers you seek.

User Personas

“Who is using my site? Why do they care about my company? What are they looking to do or accomplish?” All questions that can have a ton of answers, and sometimes the breadth of a website’s audience is not immediately obvious. Developing user personas is the solution.

We take the time to develop 2-3 key types of people, including who they are, what their goals and ambitions are, what their lifestyle looks like, and what they're doing on the site.

Peep our example:

Nina is in her mid forties, has a high paying job, regularly comes to downtown Cincinnati for work, and has a dog and two kids. Our Real Estate client wants to help this person easily find a house that meets her location preferences as well as family needs. So what does a productive website visit look like for her? She needs to be recommended a curated list of properties and have the ability to connect easily to her agent on the go. The site needs a smooth mobile experience with an ability to save searches, set up notifications on the searches, save properties, and share properties easily with her realtor.

You just got a whole lot of work done, and all you had to do was talk to your imaginary friend Nina for ten minutes. User personas work.

Want a pre-made template for your persona? We like this one!

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Come back for Part 3: Recommend, where we’re digging into creative strategy and project roadmapping.