Rob Grady

Jeremiah Owyang has a good podcast discussion with Steve Gehlen Steve Gehlen on the state of the Web Strategy Industry about the growth of the web strategist role. While I don’t think anyone who is a “decision maker and stakeholder of a website” is a web strategist, it is interesting to consider the lineage of the role. As noted in the podcast, the role has grown from both IT and marketing disciplines depending on the organizational, most professionals got their Today, the web strategist is generally a hybrid who may have started their career from a number of different disciplines including:Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Manager, Developer, Visual Design, Advertising among many others.In my career I’ve formally and informally been a project manager, technology product manager, front-end developer, business strategist as well as a user experience architect. While it may seem somewhat schizophrenic it’s been educational, fun and it’s made me a generalized specialist on the web side. While I openly admit that I lean toward software product management and user experience design, I’ve gained an understanding and appreciation of multiple disciplines and their interaction. One of the biggest challenges today is finding web strategists.Given the required breadth of knowledge for a web strategist, it is often easier to grow them than find them. If you can find an individual who has a background in one of the core areas and is passionate about technologies and has a desire to learn, you may be better off. While most folks won’t excel in all areas, providing the right people with different areas for growth keeps them interested and helps grow the organization. Having people with multi-discipline experience can help bridge the gap between disciplines.As Jeremiah and Steve discussed, the great divide between IT and Marketing is slowly being bridged as ‘Web Groups’ are beginning to emerge as core organizational departments. Organizations and the role of the web strategist will continue to evolve as web technologies continue to grow and take on increasingly important functions.