A Chat With Our Web Development Project Manager
Lilly Messner is a digital media and design professional with eight years of experience, having honed her skills in project management, print and web design, digital marketing, and communications. At ChoiceLocal she serves as Web Development Project Manager, and her expertise includes leading projects from concept to completion and ensuring timely delivery within budget while maintaining high-quality standards. Her true passion lies in building meaningful relationships and contributing to the growth of organizations.
We spent time with Lilly to learn more about how she drives partner success at ChoiceLocal.
Describe your duties as Web Development Project Manager.
As a Web Development Project Manager, I am responsible for overseeing the planning, execution, and completion of all web development projects. This involves ensuring our team has the necessary resources and assets throughout the project, coordinating with partners and the development team to provide updates and check-ins, and bridging the gap between our internal team and partners. My role is to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and to the satisfaction of our partners. While I primarily manage large-scale projects such as new website builds, I also handle smaller projects like single-page redesigns, integrations, and routine tasks such as website maintenance and updates.
Building a site from start to finish seems like a massive undertaking. How do you keep multiple people organized and stay on top of everything?
Maintaining solid processes is crucial to keeping projects on track. When I first started at CL, we had only one developer and no established process for building websites. Over the past two years, we have learned a lot from each challenging launch, refining our process each time. Now, we are in a great place regarding how these builds should go.
Effective communication is another key component. Understanding the partner’s needs, setting expectations, and successfully relaying that information to the internal team are all essential. It’s vital for our internal teams to communicate daily, working closely with Account Directors and other capabilities to ensure everyone is on the same page and aware of their responsibilities at each step of the project.
To stay organized, I take detailed notes during every meeting, whether it’s a quick 10-minute Slack call or an hour-long partner call. This practice ensures I never miss important details and allows me to share accurate recaps of these discussions with both the internal team and the partner.
Do you feel like a construction manager on a job site?
At times yes! Managing web development projects involves coordinating numerous moving pieces and various team members within different capabilities. Ensuring that everyone stays on track and understands their responsibilities can be challenging. Similar to a construction site, circumstances can change rapidly; encountering roadblocks means we have to quickly readjust and switch gears to meet deadlines. In every website build I’ve worked on, unforeseen issues often arise mid-way through, requiring us to pivot and adapt while maintaining progress on other project aspects.
What do partners want most when you meet them?
In my experience, partners enter initial discussions with specific issues they want resolved—often problems that franchisees in their network frequently complain about. Each partner has different primary concerns, and they seek clear solutions. They want to know how we will address these issues and meet deadlines. It’s crucial for them to feel heard and reassured that we have solid plans to deliver a new site that outperforms their current one and resolves the franchisees’ issues.
What’s the hardest part of a website to deliver?
Meeting deadlines is by far the most challenging aspect of web development. Many factors contribute to a site build, and even a small issue can disrupt the entire timeline. For instance, we might allocate two weeks for approval, but the partner takes three, or a seemingly minor roadblock that appears to require only a few hours of work ends up taking days. Hitting project milestones can be tough, especially if we don’t have a sufficient buffer for unforeseen issues. Fortunately, our development team is highly adaptable and accustomed to handling unexpected challenges. Everyone remains calm, communicates effectively, and does whatever it takes to complete the project on time.
Has AI affected how you operate?
AI has significantly impacted the launch process, particularly in content creation. Using CLAI (ChoiceLocal AI), we’ve been able to deliver far more content than before. Previously, we launched websites with identical content and spent months optimizing it post-launch. Now, we can launch sites with custom content from the start, providing a substantial boost right out of the gate. This improvement has been beneficial for our internal team and has greatly pleased our partners at launch.
Lilly Messner is a lifelong learner who constantly seeks opportunities to expand her skill set and knowledge base. She thrives on problem-solving, developing new connections, and managing projects that drive success. She is committed to fostering positive relationships in both her personal and professional life. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling the world, exploring different creative pursuits, immersing herself in nature, and experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen.
About ChoiceLocal
ChoiceLocal is a franchise marketing agency dedicated to leading a purpose-driven business as the first and only franchise marketing agency with a money-back guarantee. This has led to successful partnerships with over 50 franchise brands and a spot on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies. Our core values are driven not only by the digital marketing work that is done but reflected by each person who becomes a teammate; we volunteer in our local communities every quarter and make a difference to those around us. Named a top workplace for four years straight, ChoiceLocal is dedicated to making the lives of everyone we are involved with better.
