The single greatest requirement for developing an effective web strategy is the will and ability to set priorities in what you want to achieve.

This sounds obvious, as do most pragmatic ideas. However, in my many years of working with organizations to develop web strategy, those who were ready, willing and able to set priorities for what they wanted to achieve online were the most successful.

The secret to setting priorities effectively is not so much in identifying the top ones. That’s usually easy. The challenge comes in actually investing less in the lower priority outcomes. This is where discipline pays off. This is where having the right people at the table who can actually enforce the desired allocation of scarce resources pays off.

Without that discipline you may have a prioritized set of outcomes but you end up investing in them all equally. Or, worse, one of the junior outcomes gets more than top priorities simply because it has a more effective champion representing it! Effective web strategy is built upon a statement of intent and your wherewithal to implement that intent will determine your success or failure.

This is why I like using the concept of a driving force web strategy that determines the content, design and functionality of your site more than any other factor. It forces the conversation on priority and gives you a strong implementation path for making it a reality. I cover this in great depth in my book, Online and On Mission: Practical Web Strategy for Breakthrough Results.

Remember, no web strategy fails on the white board. Failure will happen during execution of the strategy, so make sure you stack the deck in your favor by exerting discipline in your outcomes prioritization.