If you need a domain name specifically for your engagement project then apply for a Domain Name before deciding on a particular brand for your engagement. Government domain name system (DNS) service
How will the platform, project website integrate or fit within with your corporate website? Does it need to? What are the implications for your users?
What is the user journey? How do you expect them to travel through the content/site? Have you made it easy for them to do what you need them to do?
Consider the type of engagement: Are you trying to encourage deliberation? Or seek feedback?
Consider how to overcome potential barriers to engagement.
User access – roles within the team.
Hardware for events:
Do you need offline access/cache?
Wifi – cellular?
Accessibility: designing for inclusion
How will you integrate online and offline forms of engagement to ensure consistent engagement with people who have limited access to the internet?
Is your platform mobile accessible?
Have you complied with the Government Web Accessibility Standard and Web Usability Standard? Accessibility Usability
Do you also need to configure a back end for moderation and data management?
Social media integration
What social media account will you use and integrate with during this engagement?
Where will you place icons and share buttons – home page, pages, at content?
Make content sharable – configure tweets and posts with references to your brand so they can be tracked.
Do you want to embed a twitter feed in your engagement? Should it show your tweets only, tweets to your account or be hashtagged?
Security and privacy
How will you ensure privacy requirements are met? Privacy
Define user access for members of the team – edit, view, publish, export of data, recipients of reports, customised dashboards.
How will you test and launch engagement – do you need a development site or protected environment?
What is your go-live processes?
Have you had a legal review of your privacy statement? Is it in plain language?
Have you conducted a security review of the platform?
Integration of platforms
How will you integrate the online engagement method into your site?
If you are using an iframe is it secure?
Will systems be networked or stacked? Do they need to be? Can they be?
Do the systems you’re using have APIs? Can you get one?
If you have to create outputs from systems to input into others:
What will the process be?
How will you ensure data is formatted for collation to reduce the effort for data analysis?
If you have references in your online engagement ensure all hyperlinks are live.
Analytics
Set analytics to meet your criteria.
Ensure all metrics you want to measure are covered.
Configure reports and establish reporting process.
Content development
You want to have engaging content that uses accessible and plain language.
Design for the platform.
Create sharable content.
Questionnaire tools
What are your questions?
Have you embedded the right logic in survey – for example, only display follow-up questions when needed?
What are the export functions?
How will you configure outputs?
Question design
Determine your questions.
Is it possible to have consistent questions across platforms?
Is your engagement deliberative – how do questions reflect content?
What other data do you need to gather?
Event tools
Do you want people to register and RSVP for events online?
How will this system integrate with how you track communications, issues and relationships?
How will you collect feedback at events?
Do you want to ask questions of participants when they register for events?
Do you need hardware? Is it set up? Tested?
How will you send follow-up emails to participants?
Submission tools
How will submissions be collected?
What personal data are you collecting and how will you ensure it is managed in accordance with your policy, the Privacy Act 2020, and the Privacy Commissioner's information privacy principles? Privacy Commissioner's information privacy principles Privacy
How will you acknowledge receipt of submissions?
Publishing process:
What is required for internal tracking of submissions?
Will you publish them?
Will you notify the stakeholder that their submission has been published?
How will you remove personal details if a stakeholder does not want them published – for example, redaction?
Online discussion and idea sharing tools
Plan your publishing processes.
How will you acknowledge input?
What is your moderation and response policy and procedure?
What is your issues and risk management procedure?
Ways to acknowledge input
Pop-up box on receipt.
Automated email reply on receipt or publication.
Live publishing.
Issues, information management and analysis processes
How will you track and manage issues?
Can you get an overview of issues at any time? Across platforms? Do you need a dashboard?
Can you create geographic profiles – of stakeholders, issues?
Can you report issues across engagement activities/events?
Collating data and analysis:
Do systems have API feeds to collate data?
How will you digitise submissions collected offline?
Can you set up a consistent format for outputs for all systems collecting data?
What is your procedure to collate all outputs from all systems collecting data?
What is your criteria for analysis?
Will some input be weighed differently?
How will you apply your policy for formal, informal and social input?
How will you ensure records and information management policy is met?
How will you link to a records management system if required?
Reporting
How will you report internally?
What types of reports are required? Consider criteria and format.
Will you set up automated reports? Consider your audience and criteria.
Do you or others need a live dashboard?
How will you report publicly?
Will you publish summaries of feedback live?
How will you report progressively?
What will your consultation report look like?
Communication and relationship management
How will you manage and collate personal data/stakeholder records? Privacy
How will you track communication online and offline?
Can you enter records of contact?
Do systems collecting data feed into your relationship management system?
How will you track stakeholder relations?
Can you create user profiles? Can they self-manage?
Can you categorise stakeholder types or interests?
Can you create geographical profiles of stakeholders?
Try a test run
We usually engage when an issue is hard or political, and even though many of us have been trialling technologies for engagement it's still a relatively new practice. So start small: try a test run and consider a ‘soft launch’.
Test runs are great at building the confidence and trust of your project team and internal stakeholders. Give them access to your development or test environment to participate for an hour or so. You could also include a small sample of external stakeholders to ensure it meets their needs too. This can also help your team test out their procedures.
During or after your test run, ask stakeholders who participated to provide you with feedback about their experience and do your best to incorporate changes where needed.
Consider a soft launch
Before launching your online engagement publicly it can also be useful to invite trusted stakeholders to participate ahead of the general public.
This is an excellent way to show that you value their opinion. Your stakeholders will appreciate the opportunity to see information first and provide you with feedback. If you are publishing comments this will also help populate and stimulate discussion, making the site more engaging for the stakeholders who follow.
If you don't feel comfortable inviting stakeholders to participate in your soft launch, consider inviting some peers.
Don’t forget to add your engagement project to the consultations listing on Govt.nz.
