Team Onboarding: What We Need for a Smooth Website Handoff

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Ralph Otto Chief Product Officer
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To build your new website efficiently and securely, we need visibility and access to a few key systems. This helps us prepare for our Vision Setting phase. Why? It knocks out any access issues early and can help us identify unknowns or gaps in your current setup. Early access also ensures a smooth transition, so our folks can work without interruption or blockers later on.

Analytics and Site Health

We use these tools to assess performance and understand how users interact with your current site:

  • Google Analytics: Helps us understand your traffic trends, top pages, and user engagement so we can measure improvements.
  • Google Tag Manager: Gives us visibility into how tags and scripts are set up so we can adjust tracking without needing to touch the codebase.
  • Google Search Console: Provides insights into how your site appears in search and alerts us to indexing issues or technical errors.

While we only need read access for most items, it is helpful for us to have Administrative access in the future.

Website Hosting and CMS

We review your current CMS and hosting configuration to understand how things are set up and identify potential technical considerations early.

  • CMS Admin Access (Staging & Production): Allows us to review page templates, plugins, and how content is managed.
  • Hosting Platform Access (e.g. WP Engine, SiteGround, Kinsta, Pantheon, Pressable): Helps us manage backups, environment setup, and deployment of the new site.
  • FTP or SFTP Credentials: Lets us access your website’s file system for direct code or asset inspection.
  • SSH Credentials (if applicable): Used for advanced server access and database work in more secure environments.
  • Database Credentials (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL): Gives us access to your site’s data layer for export, migration, or inspection.
  • Control Panel Access (e.g. cpanel): Useful for managing domain email, file managers, or databases if you don’t use a managed host.

Domain and DNS

We understand that DNS access is sensitive. If your IT team prefers to coordinate this directly or cannot provide access due to policy, we can work with that.

  • DNS Management Platform (e.g. Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap): We use this to update domain settings, create subdomains, or point your domain to the new website.
  • Domain Registrar (if different from DNS): Useful if DNS is managed here, or if changes to the domain (like renewal or transfers) are needed.

Security

To configure certain services and filter analytics data, we may need your organization’s IP address or IP range.

  • Your IP Address or IP Range: Lets us whitelist your team for staging site access or exclude internal traffic from analytics data.

Brand and Design Assets

These are usually sent outside of platform systems. These are typically too large to be sent via email, so please share a link via your company’s Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. We can provide a couple of ways to upload these assets if you don’t have one readily available..

  • Brand Assets: Includes logos, color palettes, fonts, and any other materials that define your visual identity.
  • Design Files: Original layouts and mockups help us align with past designs or build from current concepts.

Confirm Key Contacts

We may already have some of this info, but it’s helpful to confirm who owns what. These contacts should be involved in the site or related operations:

  • Technical / Infrastructure Contact: Helps with server, DNS, or hosting-related questions.
  • Content / Brand / Marketing Contact: Coordinates content reviews, assets, and brand guidance.
  • Legal or Compliance Contact: Reviews privacy policies, accessibility, or regulated content if needed.
  • Billing Contact: Handles contract-related or account access coordination when licensing or service issues arise.

Connected Services (As Needed)

If these systems are directly integrated with your website, access can help us test and validate during development. If giving access creates licensing challenges, we can coordinate access later.

  • CRM (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce): If your site connects to a CRM, we’ll ensure leads and data flow correctly after launch.
  • Email marketing (e.g. Mailchimp, SendGrid, Constant Contact): Used for newsletter forms or automated email triggers on your site.
  • Payment or donation platforms (e.g. Stripe, Classy): If you accept payments or donations online, we verify those integrations are secure and working.
  • Embedded tools (e.g. HRIS, job boards, event platforms): Includes things like job boards, HR systems, calendars, or donation tools.
  • 3rd-party integrations (e.g. APIs, scheduling tools, databases): Covers any APIs or embedded services like scheduling apps or analytics platforms.

If you’re ever unsure about how to grant access or have internal questions about policies, just let us know. We’re happy to work with your team to get everything sorted.

Closing

This all helps us get started on the right foot. The sooner we receive access to these systems, the faster we can begin our discovery and planning process. If anything on this list doesn’t apply to your setup or needs coordination with your IT team, just let us know.

We’re happy to adjust or work through the right channels. Looking forward to working together.