Stuck in the middle with you: how to balance internal stakeholders requirements with demands from an Agile agency

Published paper: Stuck in the middle with you: how to balance internal stakeholders requirements with demands from an Agile agency

This paper tells the tale of how Heidi Quicksilver went from “Hi Heidi. You’re running our new website project as of yesterday. I’ve got you an agency to help out, and it needs to be done in three months. KTHXBAI” to “Great work Heidi. We love the new website. Have a promotion.”

At a moment’s notice, Heidi was given the task of managing the outrageously fast website redevelopment for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, and with it, the management of all internal stakeholders, content migration and creation, third-party service providers, and the digital agency Cogapp.

In this paper, Heidi from Rock Hall and Gavin from Cogapp will talk through the tools and techniques used to ensure clear and effective communication throughout the organization; the innovative way we managed content; how we got the very best from our agency; and, of course, the things we got wrong, the biggest learnings, and what we’d do differently next time.

We’ll also let you know how it felt to launch the website a day before the Republican National Convention rolled into Cleveland.

Attendees will gain insight into our process and leave with tips on how to work effectively under extreme time pressure, with the eyes of the world on your city and institution. You’ll learn how to develop a true partnership from an agency, the issues to look out for on a project like this, and how to deal with them while you’ve got 1,000 things going on (as well as your day job).

And because we’re Rock & Roll, the talk will be themed around the Steeler’s Wheel classic Stuck In The Middle With You. We won’t cut any ears off, I promise.