Anton Chekhov & Website Development

One of the secrets of the success of the great Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, is that in his plays, his characters at times ignore what each other have to say. Instead of direct interactions, their conversations are often parallel or even tangential. Pick up Three Sisters, read an act and you'll see. At times when I'm consulting with an organization about its Website goals and plan, it seems Chekhov could be writing their lines. Consider this prototypical Website development committee.

Marketing Director: Well, it's more than we have budgeted.

Sales Manager: What if we developed two prospect data bases instead of one. That way, we'd have a wider range of options for targeting prospects, isn't that right?

Me: Yes, that's true.

IS Guy: I don't understand what the big deal is about sending out an autoresponder email. That's just a single line of code.

Sales Manager: But it's six different responses we'd be sending out.

IS Manager: What did you say that HR would be getting in terms of job applications?

Me: A job application that looks like the hard copy application you use, plus applicants can attach their resume.

IS Guy #1: Why not give 'em just a box where they can cut and paste their resume in there?

IS Manager #2: We should create an employment application form that creates a data base so the data base can be searched for certain types of applicants.

Sales Manager: People are just going to want to send in their own, formatted version of their resume, not just stick it in some box.

Marketing Director: We need to ask HR what it wants to do.

Me: Great idea. Who is that? Can they join the meeting?

IS Manager: The application form should create a data base. A data base is the way to go.

IS Guy: ASP. ASP is the way to go.

Marketing Director: What is ASP?

Sales Manager (getting up and reaching for his cell phone as he heads for the door): I've got a call I've got to make at 2, but I still like the idea of two data bases.

IS Guy: Active Server Pages.

Marketing Director: (frowning) What's that.

Me: Web pages that are generated on the fly from a database, rather than static html pages that you have to hand edit. We can talk about the advantages and disadvantages of ASP.

Marketing Director: It's not in the budget.

IS Manager: I think ASP is the way to go.

IS Guy: I still don't get what's the big deal about the auto responder.

These conversations, though they seem right out of Chekhov, are absolutely essential in creating the best thinking an organization can muster about its Website. And they are essential in creating an awareness of the possibilities as well as in building consensus about priorities.

In Chekhov's Three Sisters, Vershinin says, "If only we could educate the industrious people and make the educated people industrious." The best Website committees, and their facilitators, should figure out how to do both. The result: an organization with a powerful, dynamic Website that provides high value.

This article first appeared as a column written by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for the Inside Tucson Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.

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