Lots has been going on behind the scenes with the project since we started back in November. Firstly you will note we have renamed it from Website Unification project to Digital Unification, to encourage everyone to think of the project as part of the infrastructure of Breast Cancer Now, and not ‘just’ a website.

WHAT HAS THE PROJECT TEAM DONE?  

The initial focus has been for our digital agency, Manifesto, to learn about the work Breast Cancer Now does and how we work, the charity structure, our vision and strategy, and starting to define the project goals.  This is called the ‘Discovery’ phase. 

This work will create a shared understanding of where we are, identify gaps, explore the current pain points, get to know our audience and start exploring our technical needs.  

Some key pieces of work Manifesto have carried out: 

• Website review of the current site(s) to understand the current content structure, to understand what works well and where the issues are.  
• Mystery Shopper activities to understand the customer experience for some of our products. They have also reviewed existing Mystery Shopper reports.  
• Competitor analysis to understand what others are doing in the field 
• Senior stakeholder interviews across the charity to identify themes which can be used to drive the project 
• Internal survey was sent to teams to gather feedback from across the organisation. This will be used with existing feedback to start to feed into the solution 

FOCUS ON UNDERSTANDING OUR AUDIENCE WORKSTREAM  

A key focus of the project is to ensure that we design the solution for our users. To do this, Manifesto is embedding themselves in understanding our different audiences. We have been working closely with the Audience Framework and Supporter Journey projects to ensure that the projects link up.  

Manifesto is carrying out a variety of activities to inform this workstream including reading various reports which have been supplied by teams. The output from this work will be used to create Ppersonas which will be used a reference point for helping make informed decisions throughout and after the project. 

Empathy Mapping – for the website it is key that we understand what the goals of our audience are, but also how they might behave or feel. By creating this shared understanding the teams will be able use the maps as a tool to aid decisions. Understanding the users in this way will be key to improving our users experience and journeys throughout the website. 

External Survey – to understand attitudes to the information and journeys presented on the website and Forum.  

Audience interviews – so the Manifesto team have some exposure to our audiences to build a deeper understanding and empathy, and also to validate findings and hypothesis from the empathy mapping, audience framework and other insights work.   

User personas –  will be created for our key audience groups from the research activities and then be used to inform and guide decisions. 

Throughout the project we will continue to involve our users, through the volunteer network using various channels such as focus groups, surveys and usability testing sessions.  

NOW – OTHER KEY AREAS OF FOCUS 

The team are currently working on the following key areas of focus:  

• Service mapping – looking at how the users currently interact with the site to identify touch points and pain points. 
• Analytics snapshot – to understand where we are currently. 
• Technical workstream we are currently collating the features, requirements, and issues with the current systems to help guide the technical selection, we will be looking at contacting some teams including data, events and fundraising in the next month.  

NEXT – DEFINE AND DESIGN  

This is when Manifesto will collate their findings from Discovery and we start making the decisions on key recommendations, implementation requirements and we will work together to create the delivery roadmap. 

Now the offices are open you will start to see members of the Manifesto team joining us in the Ibex House office on a regular basis and we will be introducing them to various teams.