What is Growth Driven Design?

Did you know there’s more than one way to build a website?

Although most of us are familiar with the “work for months so we can get everything right the first time” mentality that is commonly associated with building websites, there is a more efficient way to create a website that works for your business and your customers.

Meet Growth Driven Design (GDD)—the smarter, more considerate sibling of traditional website design.

But, if GDD is as great as it claims to be, how come you’ve never heard of it before? And what exactly goes into that too-good-to-be-true catchy acronym?

Today, we’ll be walking you through the various components that make GDD the progressive, data-driven approach that we know and love.

Growth-Driven Methodology VS Traditional Web Design

Before we talk more about GDD, how it looks from pre-to-post launch, and its inherent virtues, we want to identify the characteristics of both traditional website design and GDD to give you a better understanding of how these different processes can support your business goals.

Traditional Website Process:

1. Traditional website design utilizes an “a la carte” approach that allows clients to select services based on their own vision for their website.
2. These updates could include as many or as few components as you need to carry out your intended goals. We’ll use these to create a fully formed website for you. Because the entire website and its components are being incorporated all in one go, traditional web design can take a little longer to complete.
3. Once the website is launched, it will only require routine updates to temporary or revolving features like content, pricing and products. Any major updates will be completed during your next redesign, which might be every few years or so. And, you won’t really know how your website is performing until after launch day, which can be very nerve-wracking for some business owners.

GDD Process:

1. The GDD process consists of several phases. Every GDD client will begin their journey with a custom discovery meeting that will allow our team to learn more about your company’s goals and its users.
2. The information that we learn about you, your company, and your clients will be used to inform the initial strategy phase. Our team will provide guidance and education to help you formulate goals and establish personalized strategies for your company and its customers. These elements will then be used to create a fully functional launch pad.
3. The launch pad acts as starting point from which the website can be adjusted to better suit company and client needs over time. Following the launch of the launch pad website, your site will be tested regularly using analytics, like web traffic and SEO, to determine what features are popular and where your site needs some improvements.
4. To ensure that your website evolves in a way that makes sense for your business and your audience, your team will continue making updates to your website and marketing strategy long after the launch date.

Notice how the GDD process is designed to adapt to changing user needs, technological developments, and business goals while the traditional web design process assumes that your strategy and goals will remain fixed. And although there’s no denying that both of these processes have their places in the world of web-design, the risks associated with traditional “from the ground up” approach can impact the performance of not only your online presence, but also your brand as a whole.

Let’s Take A Closer Look at The GDD Process . . .

If ‘continuous website improvements’ sounds overwhelming to you, remember that the GDD process is divided into three separate phases. These phases are designed to help you build the strongest possible website.

Phase One: Creating a Strategy and Building Your Launchpad

This is where the core foundations of your website will be sown. And it’s all about you, your business, and your audience.

The Strategy:

Building the launchpad generally begins with a discovery session where you’ll lay out all your must-haves and goals for your new website. We’ll work with you to analyze your entire sales and communication process to develop templates and strategies that will allow you to streamline your customer interactions using targeted e-mail and marketing approaches. By the end of the session, you should have a robust wish list that includes performance goals you have and how these might work within the larger context of marketing goals.

And because GDD is focused on the user’s needs, this phase also gives you space to develop buyer personas for your target audience. A buyer person is essentially a fictional (yet realistic!) depiction of the various kinds of customers who will be interested in, and benefit from, your services. Doing some research and collecting data on your existing users is crucial to outlining fundamental assumptions about your target market.

The Launchpad:

Our team will work with you to help you understand how your website contributes to every component of your business. Together, we’ll help you create a wish list that supports all departments and buyers journeys. The final strategy, design and content items on the wish-list will be used to build a condensed version of your website . . . aka the launch pad.

Phase Two: The Continuous Improvement Cycle

The goal of the launch pad is to produce a site that looks and performs better than your previous site without spending months finalizing every component. But that’s only the beginning! The continuous improvement cycle allows you to learn which components of the launch pad are working and which ones could use some improvement.

After launch day, we’ll work with you to identify pain points, review analytics, and collect user feedback to increase conversion rate optimization, target specific personas, improve functionality and hit your goals. The feedback you receive from your team and your customers will allow you to make informed decisions and keep growing! And, because you have already created a great foundation, you’ll be able to make adjustment to your website, sales process and marketing campaigns that keep your users, and your team, happy.

Here Are Some of the Benefits of GDD.

Implementing a GDD approach to your website design provides the following benefits:

1. It’s Cost Effective: Since GDD works in short sprints of activity, your payments can be spread out over time, rather than made up front.
2. It’s Fast: On average, a typical launch pad site can be up and running months before a traditional website is completed.
3. Made for Growth: GDD websites are designed specifically to evolve using real data and results to monitor, and meet, performance and goals.
4. It Puts Users First: The GDD process is reliant on user insight to help make smarter decisions for functionality, marketing, and overall performance.
5. Improves Department Communication: GDD will assist your team in making strategic, informed decisions, with all departments focusing on how to meet target goals and improve user feedback.

Experience What GDD Can Do for Your Business
Not all websites are the same. And you definitely don’t want to spend time, money, and energy on a website that may or may not perform better than your old one. Although many business owners are willing to accept a certain level of risk in their lives, your website should not be one of those risks. Reach out to Symetric today to discover how GDD can help your business meet today’s goals and nurture future successes.