A little background information first

I started work as a project manager at the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids in July 2013. They are probably best known for their commercial, “This is Your Brain on Drugs“. Although I was involved in project management at my previous job, this was more involved than any of my previous work.

The organization had a slew of sites under separate domains and content management systems. It would be later in the year that I would begin work on the redesign. Beyond a facelift, they redesign would also incorporate some of these other sites.

When I started working on websites back in 1997, a site redesign meant making a few different comps in Photoshop. A handful of people approved the comps.

Things have changed since then! I researched design firms and conducted meetings with the various divisions of the organization.

Project Management At the Partnership

Each group within the organization (or any organization, for that matter) sees the world from its own view. Development, which handles getting grants and donations sees the site as a donation platform. Advocacy sees the site as a place for people to contact their senators and take political action. Editorial sees it as a platform to help parents whose kids are using drugs.

As I was collecting information from meetings with internal groups, I was also researching potential design companies. After sending out RFPs, we got some back and chose 3-4 candidates to come in and present their ideas, after sharing the results of our internal meetings and research done by McKinsey & Company with them.

After meeting with potential companies to do the redesign, we settled on The Wonder Factory (Here is a video on their office, the coolest I’ve ever seen, BTW).

My job was to keep resources such as editorial, artwork, video collected and ready at the specific milestones in the project. I also conducted meetings with stakeholders in the various departments to ascertain their needs.

Below is an image of the site before the redesign.