Session 17: Smoothing Out the Wrinkles
Hi there. Welcome to this session of Online Notes – the project to create an online system for storing Cryptiquest notes, guidelines, and other management tools. The last session analyzed the social media campaign regarding the announcement of the site launch. This session is a bit of a one-off as I look at the current plan and assess the path forward.
As of right now, the production phase for Online Notes is complete. The post-production phase has started which entails the use of media outlets to announce the project. After the recent social media campaign, it was clear that I needed to have an official guideline for marketing. After the guideline is complete, I wonder how the order of operations should proceed?
- Current Theory
- Pre-Production Phase
- Production Phase
- Post-Production Phase
- Marketing Plan
- Retrospective
- Launch
- New Theory
- Pre-production Phase
- Production Phase
- Post-Production Phase
- Retrospective
The “New Theory” seems to kick out marketing but it doesn’t. It’s allowing for the marketing of the project to be its own project – with its own retrospective (which I think will be important for improving Cryptiquest’s relationship with its audience). Additionally, there are some projects that will not have a launch of any kind. Finally, the retrospective may be less user-friendly to users if there are unnecessary components included.
To that last point, I wonder if I should then write the retrospective for Online Notes and wrap it up then rebrand the last social media campaign to its own thing then move forward with the Marketing Plan? It would be tough because it’s already written the way it’s written and refers to the phases and plans that would then not sync up. I’m not going to rewrite them. Instead, I’ll use this post here as sort of a large “Lesson Learned” and refer to it in the retrospective for Online Notes, which I will work on next.
But, before I wrap this up, I’m going to tackle that About Page and Welcome Message.
About Page
This was what I had written for the About Page:
I suppose it should start with explaining what this site is, then explain Cryptiquest, then explain Cryptiquest brands.
– Online Notes: Session 13: Site Launch Design and Deliverables
I can borrow some of this text from the press release:
The Cryptiquest Projects website is an online workshop created for company developer and owner, Luke Reynolds, to log the steps taken while working on projects. In addition, this site serves as a repository for official guidelines, surveys, and other tools the company utilizes for project management which are available to the public for use.
– Online Notes, Session 14: Site Launch Press Release
Cryptiquest produces projects step-by-step during work periods called sessions (frequently released – sometimes twice a day) and each project culminates in a retrospective (less frequent – perhaps one every month or so). Retrospectives explain what steps were taken to complete the project and what lessons were learned from the experience. These retrospectives are intended to not only serve as learning tools for the company but also for the public as well.
Here is the first draft of the About Page:
The Cryptiquest Projects website is a repository for project notes, guidelines, surveys, and other management tools used by the company that are publicly available for others to use, reference, and learn from.
Cryptiquest, LLC produces media projects through a series of work periods called sessions. These sessions are frequently released, progressing the project forward step-by-step (from plan to product) and culminates with a retrospective: an educational analysis of the project.
Cryptiquest has the following brands in development:
{Insert brand summaries.}
That should be good enough, I think. I’ll send it to a confidant for review.
Okay. It is not good enough. The second paragraph is clunky. I’ll retry it based on the feedback from the confidant.
The Cryptiquest Projects website is a repository for project notes, guidelines, surveys, and other management tools used by the company that are publicly available for others to use, reference, and learn from.
Cryptiquest, LLC produces media projects through a series of work sessions. These sessions happen frequently and are released to the public. Each session chronicles the progression of the project as it moves forward step-by-step, from plan to product. Each project culminates with a retrospective, an educational analysis of the project.
Cryptiquest has the following brands in development:
{Insert brand summaries.}
That works. I’ll update that and start to tinker with the welcome message…
That took longer than it should have and I had to update the theme’s header file which will probably be overwritten in a future update so I will add that code here as a back up (line 60):
echo '<h3 style="color: #ffffff;">Welcome to <em>Cryptiquest Projects</em>!</h3><h5 class="welcome-message">This site is dedicated to Cryptiquest projects and the tools used to create them. Be sure to keep up with new releases by following the <a href="http://projects.cryptiquest.com/feed/">RSS Feed</a> or sign up for our <a href="http://company.cryptiquest.com/subscribe/">monthly newsletter</a>!</h5>';
Okay, with those two items out of the way, I’m free to work on the retrospective which I will do in the next session.