How to manage stakeholders during a website redesign

Separate contributors, reviewers, and decision makers

List the functions affected by the website: leadership, marketing, sales, service delivery, ecommerce, operations, legal, technology, and customer support. Give each person a defined role rather than inviting everyone to approve everything.

Contributors provide facts and constraints. Reviewers check work within their expertise. One project owner manages scope and schedule. A small decision group resolves strategic questions, and one named person gives final approval when views conflict.

Match stakeholder input to project stages

During discovery, gather goals, customer evidence, operational requirements, risks, and existing knowledge. During structure, review page purpose, journeys, and content responsibilities. During visual design, test the concept against the approved brief. During build, focus on behavior, content accuracy, and acceptance criteria.

Do not reopen an earlier decision because a stakeholder first joins at a later stage. Keep a decision log and provide concise context for anyone who must enter the process. For a phased project, define governance with the same care as release boundaries; see how to redesign a website in phases.

Use one feedback channel and one consolidated response

Ask reviewers specific questions tied to the current deliverable. A request such as “check the accuracy of these service claims by Thursday” produces better input than “tell us what you think.” Require comments to identify the user or business consequence and distinguish errors from preferences.

The internal owner should reconcile duplicate and conflicting feedback before sending it to the studio. The studio can advise on tradeoffs, but it should not be asked to arbitrate undisclosed internal politics or guess which executive comment outranks another.

Design reviews to close decisions

Send material early enough for preparation, state what will be decided, and invite only the people needed for that decision. Begin by restating the agreed criteria. End with approved choices, open actions, owners, and dates.

Asynchronous review works well for factual checks and detailed copy. Live sessions are better for strategic tradeoffs or contradictory positions. Avoid presenting unfamiliar work to a large group and asking for immediate approval.

Write a lightweight governance model

• Owner: accountable for scope, schedule, and consolidated feedback.
• Decision group: resolves positioning, investment, and major tradeoffs.
• Experts: validate facts, compliance, technology, and operations.
• Studio: recommends solutions and explains design consequences.
• Cadence: dates for inputs, reviews, decisions, and escalation.
• Record: approved decisions, changes, owners, and remaining risks.