Web Strategy From Scratch Means: Don’t Blame The Legacy

Mostly, when you get hired as a consultant/ web strategist/ web type, your task is to improve or rethink the company’s web activities. Sometimes, you have plenty of freedom, sometimes you’re pretty restricted in your choice of tools, ideas, or strategies. But usually you’ll be confronted with some kind or the other of historic legacies of all kind: Traditions, tools, an old database, or just the good ol’ classic: “We’ve always done it this way, we’re not changing that.”

It something doesn’t work, you tend to blame it – at least partly – on this kind of legacy: I had proposed to do it differently, but they just wouldn’t listen, is a thought most people in this kind of position will be familiar with. (What’s your experience? Share it in the comments!)

So I feel very lucky indeed to be involved in a project where we can start the web strategy practically from scratch: Except for some basic tool set (and a great team), there’s a complete relaunch to plan. What struck me as interesting: This also means that if anything won’t work as I assume, there’s no legacy to blame, but just our own thinking and planning. Scary? As Falk pointed out: “You will face reality soon. ;-)”

Good point, that. But for the time being, I think it’s pretty cool not to feel the need to blame any kind of legacy and I’m quite happy to take that responsibility myself. If you get a chance to clear up the table and start from scratch, why wait?

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