A Qualitative Study on Web Product Development: Based on Experiences of Professionals

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss experiences of web professionals and how these professionals interact with one another and with clients to create web products. I used relevant literature and qualitative research to present the themes that exist in the production of web products. When I began my thesis I was ans aspiring Web Project Manager with minimal experience in the digital field and decided to research the experiences of web professionals to learn about the process of creating web-based products from beginning to end. Research and interviews provided information on the steps involved in web product development: I learned that the steps are dependent on the scope of a project and the requirements of stakeholders, clients, and users. I conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with seven professionals and extracted themes that include making a functional team, professional roles, the merging roles of web developer and web designer, problem solving, marketing strategies, the process, team interaction, client relations, and products versus projects. Professionals discussed experiences related to team and client interaction that help define the overall development process and answer the research question, how do web professionals create web products? I learned that these steps vary and overlap depending on experiences and professional roles.