Plan 

9 

Interact with decision-makers according to personality type  

If a committee absolutely must approve work on a Web site, expect things to move slowly. 

Approvals will require consensus, and building consensus takes time. The best bet for 

getting good work approved by a committee is to tailor interactions with it to the 

personality type of its highest-ranking member. Present ideas and suggestions in a way 

that is comfortable to that person, and they ll move through the committee more 

smoothly. 

Not only is personality profiling useful in getting work approved by committee, it also 

help interactions with a single decision-maker as well. In Web projects, often what gets 

approved isn t the best work, but work presented in the best way. 

A cautionary tale about personality type  

 I was building a Web site for a firm that produces accounting software. The 

company s logo was colorful, so I assumed that they would want a colorful home 

page design. I created one, then submitted it for approval. 

The firm s president, an accountant, told me that they didn t like it. The next I heard 

from him, he directed me to the site of another software company, and told me to 

build them a site that looked just like that one.  

 His response was typical of details-oriented people, as most accountants are: go with 

the tried-and-true. If I had walked him through the design process, explaining 

exactly how I arrived at that design, he may have gone with the first design which fit 

better with their corporate identity.  

Ernie Winters, independent Web developer 

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