The key to Drupal success: put the person before the technology

The first time I saw a Drupal admin menu, I was terrified. No one told me what to expect. What if they had said, “It is going to be big, and complicated, and not always clear how to move forward. But it is also powerful and infinitely customizable to meet your needs. Understand it will take time, but soon you will get it...and it will be worth it.” Drupal doesn’t have to be scary and it’s not for our clients or our project teams because we focus on one thing: put the person first.

The difference between a good project and an excellent project is understanding assumptions and managing expectations. For the project to be successful, we must navigate deeply ingrained human beliefs and behaviors. Simply put, we solve the human challenges first; as they are more delicate, more personal and more infinite than any website solution built on Drupal. In this session we will review how a human expert and Drupal expert partnered to solve problems encountered during Drupal website redesign projects, focusing first on the person and second on the technology.

Attendees of this session require little to no Drupal knowledge and limited software lifecycle knowledge. They’ll leave knowing:

• How to kick off a project and give each team member a running start

• How to run effective meetings for different disciplines and different personalities

• How to motivate your internal team and your client team

• How to frame recommendations for different audiences

• How to communicate unexpected challenges

• How to manage and talk about a project budget without making it Larry David awkward.

• How to be sure...when it’s all said and done...everyone is able to enjoy the process and excitement of their new Drupal website.