The better your proposal, the better chance it has for approval. Please note that “better”

does not mean “longer.” In fact, getting a proposal read and checked off requires brevity,

accuracy, and conviction, but in order to do that, you need to acquire several things.

The research

First and foremost, digging in and researching the industry and technology will provide a

strong background going forward. Answer the fundamental questions. What is the state of

the browser market and standards compliance? What skill sets need to be acquired to

complete the redesign?

The cold hard facts

What will be the tangible, measurable benefits of the redesign? These are the primary, sec-

ondary, and tertiary goals just discussed—the quantifiable benefits to the company’s bot-

tom line, spelled out in numbers and ranked by importance. These need to be prominent

and explained in plain language. Any type of inner-circle nomenclature, buzzword-laden

prose, or technobabble will make as much headway with a management team as a pillow

through concrete. Simple words, clear messages.

The timeline

Define the length of the redesign process, from start to finish. It’s important to spell this

out in as much detail as possible, taking into account the team’s current workload, learn-

ing curves for new technology, testing phases, and whatever else is pertinent. There are

two key rules in laying out the project timeline:

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OVERVIEW

Since the redesign is probably happening regardless, it’s a good time to work in the com-

pany colors to the CSS file and be done with it. Similarly, having code validate to XHTML

1.0 Strict might come with making the website standards compliant, but it’s certainly not a

requirement. And as for the Ajax, that falls clearly into the “if time permits” category.1

Selling the redesign

After defining the redesign’s needs and objectives, it’s time to sell the idea to the people

who make the decisions—management. If you’re working in-house, it might be your boss,

or your boss’s boss, or even that really important guy on the 33rd floor. If freelancing or

working in an agency, you’re targeting the same people, but your job is made all that much

harder by not working inside the company.