How to present / market my flavor of web site development?

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Aug 2016

Hi,

I am a Software Engineer and mainly an applications or middle-ware developer.

I develop mostly in Java, but use a number of other languages. Platforms include Android, Windows or Mac Desktop, using NetBeans, and Web application development using Spring MVC and Java Server Pages. I also use a variety of SQL Servers.

I have a lot of independent back end functionality written in Java and SQL which ports between these platforms pretty easily.

I have always shied away from developing web "sites" and I do understand that this is different from web application development, however I have frequently been asked to develop sites, though I have not yet succumb.

I am just at present very limited on time to learn new stuff, but am still an experienced developer having worked on a number of demanding projects. Also, (and no offence to the purpose of this forum) I have previously never really been very interested or motivated to develop web sites and when using sites I have always preferred boring but functional and efficient sites to fancy ones (though this may be beginning to change).

With this in mind I experimented by downloading a Resilient HTML5 CSS Template. I found I could very quickly and easily adapt it to a Java Server Page in Spring MVC and hook it into much of my pre-existing back end functionality. It looked good and worked well. This may not be the way many would develop web sites, but given my current position, i.e. skills, time, code assets, this is the way that seems to work for me.

I am not sure exactly how to frame my actual question, but here goes:

I am not great at customer facing. I have never been very good at selling myself or applying what I can do or what assets I have in the most useful light or context? How should I market my particular flavor of web "site" development? I realize this flavor comes with some limitations, but it also comes with some very great advantages. I am not quite sufficiently familiar with all the other flavors to leverage these limitations and advantages. How do I translate these into customer speak? What arguments do I make? What do I present? What do I play down (with honesty of course)?

I do hope this makes sense, please ask for clarity if needed. I am not really looking for someone to say Spring MVC JSP is for web "applications" not web "sites" or to say just use WordPress it'll be quick and easy, even though they may be right. It's just that the position I am in right now, I am better sticking just with what I know.

Andrew.

They have: 66 posts

Joined: Jan 2016

I'm sure your good at what you are doing but the most important thing is customer satisfaction.

Ask what's your customer wants and needs, their requirements, and what they exactly vision their website or app. Simple things like that may change your UI and codes.

We don't try. We Do It. -- 3wcorner.com

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.