Client FAQs When Planning Resources for a Web Development Project

Whether you’re working with a web development agency to build a website from scratch or you’re completely redesigning an existing website, there will inevitably be resources required on your end. While your content, design and development teams will be there to support you every step of the way, there are commitments on the client side that are important to budget time for. Knowing what’s expected from you and your organization before beginning work with a web development agency will not only make the build process run smoother, it will also result in a more effective website that clearly represents your brand.

To help give you an idea of what’s expected from our clients, we’ve compiled the answers to some of the most frequently asked client questions from every phase of the web design and development process.

FAQs We’ll Cover (and More!)

• How should I build my internal website team? 
• How much time do I need to allocate for my internal team members? 
• How do I know how long my web development project will take? 
• What’s the best way to give design feedback to my agency?
• What can I work on while the development team is coding my website? 
• In QA or edits, how do I know if something is a bug versus a user error?
• What exactly will I need to test/check during the QA phase? 

Keep scrolling to find our project management team’s answers to these and more frequently asked questions so you can dive into your next web development project fully prepared. 

If you’re still in the preliminary stages of planning a website build or redesign, we’ve also put together comprehensive information about how to budget your website project. 

Frequently Asked Questions Re: The Web Design and Development Process

Identifying Your Internal Team

How should I build my internal website team? Who should get updates vs. who should make decisions?

Your internal team should consist of anyone who needs to have the final say in approving the end product. It’s best to include as few people as possible to make sure feedback is clear and not overly disparate. Differing opinions are welcome if they can be productively discussed together, but lengthy debates amongst various team members can add unnecessary time to a project. (see next question for tips on this)

Here’s a simple way to look at it: Anyone who the project affects should receive updates (e.g. coordinating with the marketing department for launch announcements) and anyone whose approval is needed to keep the project moving should be part of decisions and feedback.

How do I facilitate internal consensus with my team on feedback and adjustments? 

To stay away from wide-ranging feedback that can often be based on personal preference, we find it helpful to continually try to center feedback around these questions: 

• Will this accomplish our goals as an organization? 
• How does this feedback relate to our strategy and goals for this project? (Please refer back to the creative strategy presentation and creative & technical brief often—they’re there for you as a guide!)
• Are we centering feedback around our users and their needs, or are we focusing more on our own desires and gut reactions?

Opinions tend to clash the most when they are based on personal preferences rather than keeping the brand and the website’s goals at heart. 

If you’re sharing any aspect of the project with your team for feedback, you can also use the Creative Strategy presentation and Creative & Technical Brief as a guide. This will help you keep the project goals and objectives, as well as the organization, centered in the discussion.

How much time do I need to allocate for my team members internally, and how can I get all stakeholders involved sooner rather than later? 

The time commitment for your internal team can vary depending on a few factors: the size of your team, how fast your team communicates, and the size of your website project. Our loose recommendation is 3-4 hours a week during the planning, discovery, and design phases, minimal engagement during development, and then 3-6 hours a week for the final few weeks of development (for content edits/entry, QA and launch plan). 

Content development also happens during the early stages of your project and will require an additional time commitment from your team. The amount of time will be dependent on whether you have dedicated support (either through a Mangrove content strategist or your internal team) and how much content already exists. We recommend budgeting approximately 1-3 hours per web page, depending on the amount of writing/editing required. 

At the start of the development phase, your team’s time commitment will reach a lull because our developers will be busy coding your website based on approved designs. Once we have a product to share, QA (quality assurance) begins, and we’ll need more time from your team to review the site, enter feedback in our QA tool, and make any content adjustments.

You can get stakeholders involved sooner rather than later by asking for their approval of the strategy brief to ensure goal alignment and by including them in the site architecture, content, and design phases. Ask for their time at key milestones, rather than constantly, so that they can be involved but not overwhelmed.

Planning & Discovery Phase 

How do I know how long my web development project will take? 

We will provide you with an estimated timeline based on the phases and scope of work included in your project. Every project is unique and the time it takes to complete the work, particularly when development is involved, will depend on factors like the complexity of the design, customized features, and the number of pages. 

As an example, a smaller, development only project in which the design is provided to us may take approximately 2-3 months weeks to complete. For full website builds that include strategy, design and development you can estimate that it will take approximately 6-9 months.

Note that timelines are heavily dependent on the pace of stakeholder feedback. If your team can review and make aligned decisions in an effective and timely manner, we can stay on pace. If not, plan to include time for added internal alignment and discussion, especially throughout the earlier phases of the project. 

Timeline and scope conversations will begin in your first meetings with our business development team and will be discussed with you in more detail during contracting and the initial project phases. At the end of the discovery phase, we will hold a scope review meeting where we will finalize the scope and timeline required for your project.

Site Architecture & Content Phase 

How will I know if I need to hire other contractors like a copywriter, content strategist, photographer, or videographer? 

These needs will become clear during our planning and discovery phase in which we take inventory of the assets you already have. We always recommend hiring a content strategist and/or copywriter, whether as part of your project through Mangrove or a professional in your network, as creating content tends to be the most challenging phase for clients to navigate on their own. Photographers or videographers might be necessary if you do not have many high-quality brand assets and need more specific visuals than what you can obtain from stock images and videos. 

What do I need to provide in terms of content and assets? How do I share content with Mangrove? Can I still make content changes after I share content files with Mangrove? 

Depending on your budget, stock photography and copywriting may be included within your scope of work with Mangrove. If not, then you will need to provide imagery, copy, copyediting, and logos for your website project. We make it simple for you to share content with us by providing you with structured documents containing links to Google Drive folders where you can easily upload images, videos, and copy. 

You can make content changes after sharing content files. However, once we’ve mutually agreed that the content documents are final, we ask that you pause editing until we’ve migrated content into the backend of the website. After we’ve migrated content, you’ll be able to make content changes directly from the backend—we’ll teach you how and provide a manual for future use.

Design Phase 

What’s the difference between a wireframe and a mockup? 

A wireframe is similar to a blueprint. It’s a black-and-white layout of the high-level pages of your website. This allows us to confirm the structure, functionality and content needs for each key page before spending time to design specifics. 

Mockups have full design elements applied—color, imagery, typography, sizing, etc. The content types and layout will be based on the wireframes, but mockups will show you what the site will look like when it’s built.

What are the best ways to give design feedback to my agency? How is design feedback collected and organized? What feedback is needed?

Your agency should guide you in how they like to receive feedback. Here at Mangrove, we like to do an in-person review session in which we take notes of your feedback. We also ask clients to leave us notes directly in Figma, a collaborative design interface tool with a handy comment feature, so that we can see the content area that you are referring to with your feedback. 

Here are a few ideas to make your feedback more constructive to eliminate churn and keep your project moving along: 

• The most helpful feedback offers a descriptive response to the designs. Example: “When I see this color in the designs, it makes me think of … or it makes me feel …” 
• Feedback like “I don’t like it” or “It’s not creative enough” doesn’t tell us anything about what is not working well for you, so it makes it more difficult for us to adapt the design to your preferences.

When does design end and development begin? Can we make design changes till launch? 

Once all pages in the scope for design are created and approved, we will move into the development phase. Sometimes we can start development a little early, but it’s easiest and most efficient for us to have everything at once so we can plan the development process strategically.

After the designs are approved, there are no more design changes included in scope. We’ll need to expand the scope and timeline if you want design changes up until launch. Having our roadmap change halfway through the journey means we’ll need to add more time to your project.

Development + Internal QA Phase

What can I work on while the development team is coding my website? 

By the time your site enters development, most of your website-related work will be wrapped up! At this stage, our team is focused on bringing everything to life. One thing we do recommend thinking about during this time is how you want to announce your new site. Whether it’s a full marketing campaign or something more simple for your community, planning ahead for the launch can help you make the most of the momentum. 

During this phase, you won’t be able to make changes to content that’s been approved and is ready to be migrated into the site, though you may still be working through other content that’s not yet lined up for migration. For content that’s been approved and is in the queue to be migrated, you’ll still have the opportunity to make edits before launch.

QA Phase

In Quality Assurance (QA) or edits, how do I know if something is a bug versus something I can edit on my own? 

If it’s a typo or image swap, we request that you first try to edit directly in the backend per your training. We can always support you to find where and how to edit an element if needed.  Part of this QA process is a learn-by-doing approach for you to get comfortable making these changes independently. If it’s an alignment or functionality issue, or if you can’t find a way to edit, it’s likely a bug and requires dev support.  We have a log of all feedback items and will fix these items before launch. The more you actively make edits in the backend, the more information and validation we’ll have to ensure everything is working as expected. This is the beta period in which we can work out any kinks and ensure ease of management and empowered management post-launch.

What device should I review my site on during QA?

Before we hand the site over to you for QA, we’ll complete an internal review that includes testing across various browsers as well as on mobile, desktop, and a range of screen sizes in between. When we move into the client QA period, we are aiming to have minimal additional bugs that you as the client are bringing to the table. During this phase, it’s often the case that as content has been populated into the site, there might be adjustments to formatting or the way custom fields are used or which blocks are selected to better fit the real content.

If possible, try viewing it on different browsers too (like Chrome, Safari, or Firefox), as things can sometimes behave a little differently depending on the setup.

What exactly will I need to test/check during the QA phase? 

During the QA phase, we’ll be checking that pages load properly, links work, and layouts look good across devices and browsers. Your role in this phase will primarily be on reviewing to check that content is placed properly and making any final content edits as needed. 

Here are a things to check during this phase:

• Try submitting any forms: Test submit any contact forms, newsletter sign-ups, etc. Make sure you see a confirmation message or email, if required, and that the form behaves as expected. Note that we will test these as well, but having clients test ensures you’re receiving the expected notifications via email and other factors we might not be able to review in our initial QA rounds.
• Look around for typos or inconsistencies: Be sure to flag all spelling or formatting issues that you might see – or, ideally, log into the backend of your site and update on your own! We always run internal QA first, but sometimes things do get missed.
• General sweep for content flow, correct/expected links and assets – check the site to ensure the content and images are telling your story as intended. We likely will be sharing the work of content migration. You know your business better than anyone. If anything looks out of place, you’ll likely catch it quickly, allowing us to continue to focus on technical bugs and refinement leading up to launch.

Launch Phase

What happens during the launch? What kind of issues could arise? What should I be prepared for? How will my agency support the project during and after launch?

During the launch phase, we update your domain to point to your new website, and we also update the URLs and database within the new site to use the official domain rather than the development URL. We then do a quick check of everything to be sure that the live website is working properly.

We will also re-submit the site to search engines for indexing. This helps it be indexed faster, but it’s still up to search engines for how long this takes. 

Issues that may arise: 

• It can take anywhere between 2-48hrs for your domain change to propagate, so some users may still see the old site while some see the new site sooner.  We do not have control over this timing, but luckily it most often only takes a few hours. 
• Integrations could break and need to be reconnected or updated at launch. 

In this phase, you won’t need to be prepared for much, other than being patient while the changes take place. It’s helpful if you’re reachable in case there are any issues using two-factor authentication to log into the domain registrar, (although we test our access beforehand.) 

Otherwise, we will manage the full process. After launch, we include 2 weeks of post-launch support for any bugs or questions regarding how to use the site and update content. 

Conclusion 

Because every web development project is unique, the total time and internal resources required from you, the client, may vary. Having an idea of what’s expected from you and your team before getting started can help keep your project on track and ensure a positive experience for everyone involved. 

It’s our responsibility as your agency to support you in planning and preparing for your website build so the process is as streamlined (and enjoyable!) as possible.  Our goal is always to create a finished product that you—and all internal stakeholders—are proud of and empowered to manage.