The Secret to Smooth(er) Higher Ed Website Redesigns
For anyone who’s ever been part of a college or university website redesign, you know it’s not just a digital project, it’s a culture shift and a supreme act of diplomacy. Campus stakeholders come out of the woodwork. Priorities multiply. Opinions abound. And suddenly, a project that was supposed to modernize your site, sharpen its focus, and bring your brand to life on the web starts to feel like a referendum on everything.
Recognizing all of this, I highly recommend starting a college redesign with a principle I share with clients upfront: Everyone gets a voice, not a vote. For higher ed marketing professionals, embracing this principle is one of the best ways you can lead with both empathy and authority, and get to launch quickly.
Your Role: Translator, Not Task-Taker
Your role in this goes far beyond tactics. You’re creating a digital experience of your institution, one that translates priorities into strategy to achieve goals. You’re managing expectations and channeling stakeholder feedback. You’re uniting brand and user experience. To be successful, you’ll also need to listen well while leading decisively.
While it’s tempting to try to keep everyone happy, design-by-committee can result in diluted messaging and endless iterations based on personal preference, resulting in a paralyzed process. Your job can’t be simply to take orders; it’s to lead a process that is inclusive while also being strategic and efficient.
Set the Tone Early: Clarity is Kindness
The most successful redesigns begin with an honest conversation. That means telling stakeholders from day one: “We want to hear from you. Your input matters. And decisions cannot be made by consensus or we’ll never get to launch. This market is unforgiving.”
This doesn’t shut people out. Rather, it builds trust. When people understand the process, the timeline, and their role within it, they’re far more likely to engage constructively. They may not like everything you’ve decided, but if your process is methodical and the “why” is made clear, the vast majority will respect and appreciate your candor. It also helps you avoid late-stage surprises when someone expects to “approve” a design when you only intended for them to provide feedback.
Clarity at the outset smooths your way later.
Secure Alignment with Executive Leadership First
Before any stakeholder interviews, surveys, or target audience focus groups happen, there’s a key group you need fully on board: Executive Leadership. Their alignment empowers you and the project team to draw boundaries that keep the redesign on track. And when you can open conversations with, “I’ve spoken with the Cabinet, and they’re completely behind this,” you’ll likely meet with less resistance.
Make sure Executive Leadership understands:
- The scope and budget parameters of the redesign
- The timeline and non-negotiable deadlines
- The goals and KPIs you will use to measure success
- The highest priority target audience(s)
- The decision-making framework, including who has final say on what (that hopefully includes empowering the project team to make decisions and consult with an advisory group when necessary)
- The critical role they play in setting the project up for success by being visibly, vocally supportive of both the project and the project team
When you start this way, you gain the authority to manage stakeholder input with confidence. It also helps when tough trade-offs come up, which they inevitably do.
Facilitate Feedback, Don’t Just Collect It
Gathering input via focus groups, surveys, interviews, and active listening sessions is a given in higher education. While you may think the main purpose is to get critical input from a broad group of stakeholders, the more significant value often comes from ensuring people feel seen, heard, and respected by how you include them and act on their input.
As a marketing leader, you need to turn that feedback into actionable insights rather than a list of conflicting demands. You have the strategic lens to separate what’s nice to have from what’s critical path for launch, and the brand perspective to ensure that the institution’s brand voice is imbued consistently and coherently across departments.
A good redesign process doesn’t ignore stakeholder input; it channels it effectively.
80/20, or Progress not Perfection
A website redesign will never completely satisfy everyone across the institution, nor will it be perfect. Your job isn’t to deliver perfection, but to deliver a platform that meets strategic goals, honors your brand, serves your audiences effectively, and launches.
When you lead with transparency, facilitate real (though bounded) participation, and stay aligned with leadership, you create the conditions for success in a culture that values consensus.
Remember: Everyone deserves to be heard, but not everyone can get a vote. That isn’t just reasonable; it’s essential to getting the work done and goals achieved.
Pete Gaioni is a Partner and the VP of Strategy and Account Services at iFactory/RDW Group. He always loves to chat all things strategy. You can connect with him at hello@ifactory.com.