One of the best parts of developing county government websites is meeting so many new people, understanding their jobs and responsibilities to the public, and, in many cases, getting to visit and experience the county itself!
We recently kicked off a new site for Clayton County, Iowa, and thought we’d give a peek behind the curtain at what a county website kickoff looks like with Neapolitan Labs.
Kick-Off Meeting
Depending on the location of the county and how full our schedules are when a proposal is accepted, we schedule an in-person or virtual kick-off meeting. These initial kickoff meetings are with our key website contacts, which can include IT, the auditor, and sometimes a full website committee if formed by the county.
During our virtual kick-off with Clayton County, we shared initial recommendations, available features, and discussed core website pages. This process helps us align with our client by identifying desired features and necessary follow-ups on both our end and the county’s.
VIRTUAL DEPARTMENT MEETINGS
Following the kick-off meeting, our newest strategy has been to offer a batch of virtual department meetings ahead of any in-person visits. This provides more flexibility for county staff members and allows us to have a follow-up meeting if necessary when we visit in person.
During these individual department meetings, we share a little about Neapolitan Labs and our goals for the build, emphasizing that we want to make everyone’s jobs easier with an improved site and user-friendly content management system.
Ultimately, these meetings facilitate a deep dive into each department’s current website pages to discuss what content the department wants to keep, remove, and/or add. Oftentimes, new site development provides a chance for departments to completely revamp their site content and utilize new features that improve their quality of life and residents’.
In-Person Meetings
After our round of virtual department meetings, we like to visit the county to provide the option for departments to meet with us in person, either for follow-up discussions or for their initial meeting.
For Clayton County, we were able to have follow-up meetings with many of the departments we had already met with virtually. This gave both sides a chance to address outstanding questions and discuss new ideas.
We also had the privilege of meeting with several departments we had not yet met with, gaining an understanding of what their site needs are and sharing our available solutions. We’re thankful to everyone who took the time to meet with us and look forward to bringing their visions for their sections of the site to life!
Experiencing the County
We love to have on-site visits as it helps connect our team to the county. For example, during our meetings in Clayton County, we not only had the opportunity to visit their county office building and courthouse, and get to know their team members better, but we also explored their county seat of Elkader.
We were able to stay at local bed and breakfast Gold Finch Suites, right in their picturesque downtown area, making us feel like residents ourselves! During meeting breaks, we visited local businesses, stopping for a delicious lunch and sweet drinks at The Brim Coffeehouse, picking up fresh glazed croissants from Pedretti’s Bakery, and exploring unique boutiques, all while snapping some photos for the county site.
We also stopped at the Motor Mill Historic Site on our way out of town, bringing to life one of the many places we’d so far only seen in photos shared with us for the site. It was another lovely spot that we were all too glad to experience in person, gaining a better understanding of its significance to the county.
Connecting With Our Clients
While in-person meetings aren’t always possible for every client — depending on budget, location, and industry — we incorporate them into our county website development projects because we know how vital it is to connect not only with the many staff members we’re working with (making county projects unique), but also with the county itself. It helps inspire our work and gives us a greater understanding of the community that the site represents and will ultimately serve.
Ready for Your Own Site Kickoff?
Need a new website for your county, other government entity, organization, or business? Let’s chat about our solutions and how we can connect with you and your project.
