Effective governance structures are essential for long-term website success. By establishing clear ownership, approval processes, and update protocols during discovery, organizations prevent confusion and conflicts that often emerge post-launch. The governance framework should address both immediate launch needs and ongoing content lifecycle management, ensuring the website remains current, accurate, and aligned with organizational goals as it evolves over time.

Information architecture review examines how content is organized, labeled, and structured. By analyzing navigation complexity, tagging systems, and user search behavior, teams can identify structural improvements that enhance findability and user experience. This analysis informs the new site architecture, ensuring content is logically organized and easily accessible to all user segments.

Performance bottlenecks often stem from inefficient caching, unoptimized images, complex queries, or inadequate server resources. Documenting these issues during discovery allows teams to architect solutions that address root causes rather than symptoms. Security concerns must be thoroughly documented, including authentication weaknesses, permission gaps, outdated dependencies, and compliance gaps that require remediation in the new system.

High-value pages that drive conversions deserve special attention in the redesign, while consistently underperforming pages may need significant revision or elimination. User flow analysis reveals common paths through the site and identifies friction points where users abandon their journey. Device usage patterns inform responsive design priorities, ensuring optimal experiences on the devices users actually use. These analytics insights transform abstract user personas into concrete behavioral data that guides every design decision throughout the project.

Qualitative research methods like user interviews and usability testing complement quantitative analytics, providing context and explanation for observed behaviors. These insights inform information architecture decisions, navigation design, content prioritization, and feature development. By grounding design decisions in actual user research rather than assumptions, organizations dramatically increase the likelihood of creating websites that truly serve their audiences effectively and drive desired business outcomes.

Content modeling for Drupal requires careful planning of entity structures, field configurations, and relationships that support flexible, scalable content management. By defining content types, taxonomies, and entity references during discovery, teams create a solid foundation that accommodates current needs while enabling future growth. Migration planning must balance efficiency with quality, determining which content can be migrated automatically and which requires manual review or rewriting. Clear mapping from old content structures to new models ensures data integrity and prevents content loss during the transition.

Workflows and permissions structures must be thoroughly documented during discovery, including editorial roles, review processes, approval steps, and multi-site considerations. Clear workflow definitions prevent confusion and bottlenecks during content production, ensuring efficient operations after launch. Future enhancement planning during discovery creates a roadmap that guides long-term investment and ensures the technical foundation can accommodate anticipated growth and evolving requirements.

Platform decisions made during discovery have long-term implications for flexibility, performance, and maintainability. Choosing between Drupal versions, page building approaches, and module selections requires balancing current needs with future requirements. Infrastructure planning ensures the technical foundation supports expected traffic, provides adequate security, and enables optimal performance across all user segments and geographic regions.

Accessibility requirements must be defined clearly during discovery, including specific WCAG conformance levels, keyboard navigation requirements, color contrast standards, and alternative text guidelines for media. These standards ensure the website serves all users regardless of ability, while also improving SEO and overall usability. Wireframes and prototypes created during discovery facilitate stakeholder alignment and user testing before development begins, reducing the risk of costly changes later in the project lifecycle.

Search intent mapping ensures content strategy aligns with how users actually search, improving both SEO performance and user satisfaction. Analytics planning defines what success looks like and how it will be measured, establishing baselines and targets that guide ongoing optimization. Tag management implementation enables sophisticated tracking while maintaining site performance and respecting user privacy through proper consent management and data handling practices.

Mitigation strategies should include contingency plans for high-probability risks, buffer time in project schedules to absorb unexpected delays, clear approval gates that prevent bottlenecks, and escalation procedures for resolving conflicts quickly. Regular risk reviews throughout the project ensure new threats are identified early and mitigation strategies remain effective as circumstances change. Documentation of risks and mitigation plans also helps stakeholders understand project complexity and supports realistic expectations about timelines and outcomes.