Cultivating a Flexible Web Development Mindset
Fostering a flexible mindset and accompanying behaviors is beneficial in any career. But especially in industries that are forever changing.
Web development is one of those forever-changing industries. As a result, it needs professionals dedicated to making web experiences as efficient and customer-centric as possible.
But to be a successful web developer, you must first redefine your mindset to crave adaptability. You can see the benefits of cultivating flexibility as a web developer in the websites thriving today. In other words, flourishing websites are directly connected to web developers feeding their appetite for becoming more flexible in the way they think and do.
Read on to learn about seven ways to cultivate flexibility as a web developer and how they benefit your overall goal of achieving a flexible web development mindset.
Appreciate Change and Flexibility
The first step to cultivating a flexible web development mindset is appreciating the value of change and flexibility. We’ve all heard the saying that “change is the only constant.” Meaning, the only thing really guaranteed in this world is that things will change.
Appreciate this fact. The appreciation will lead to you finding ways to leverage change. And the best way to do that is to be flexible.
When you understand the benefit of being flexible, you’re more willing to adopt actions that bring about that flexibility. And doing things that show you the advantages of being flexible will help a flexible mindset stick.
Also, appreciating flexibility incites an open mind, something crucial to successful web development. You’ve got to be willing to look at the web development process from every angle. This leads us to our next tip.
Study the Unconventional
Building a website is a very traditional concept for businesses. However, the development process can take unconventional twists and turns.
Many developers have found success in going down less-traveled roads in the design and development process. So, you want to ensure you aren’t clinging to the conventional way of doing things.
Studying unconventional ways to develop a website will help you cultivate flexibility. It will open up the possibilities for different designs, exclusive features, and valuable functions that draw your customers to you.
Furthermore, studying the unconventional can also help you with your web development mindset by offering new ways to better the development process.
For example, let’s say you’ve noticed your current development methodology has left your team inefficient, unorganized, and incapable of adapting when the development process takes a turn. You know your development team needs to be more flexible, organized, and efficient. But how?
Luckily, your willingness to study the unconventional leads you to the agile development methodology.
The six stages of the agile development life cycle are:
- Evaluate and prioritize projects.
- Plan the necessities for the first sprint.
- Construction of software/code.
- Release of first iteration.
- Continued production and support for the release.
- Retirement or upgrade.
The agile methodology allows you to be more flexible, cost-efficient, communicative, and ready to remedy what’s not working on your website. You can find these sorts of solutions and more with unconventional research prompted by a flexible mindset.
All in all, being flexible leads you to explore the entire web development landscape, conventional and unconventional ways alike.
The Willingness to Learn New Skills
Becoming comfortable with flexibility doesn’t happen without intention. A significant part of the intentional work of cultivating a flexible web development mindset is being willing to learn new skills.
Learning new skills is the fastest route to flexibility. These new skills could include:
- Different programming languages
- New development methodologies
- Website design techniques
- Web project management skills
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Video editing
- Content creation
- Anything that helps you avoid common website mistakes
The willingness to learn new skills like the ones above furthers your knowledge in web development. Also, it opens you up to new opportunities in the industry. And constantly adding new knowledge and experience to your background is critical in cultivating a flexible mindset.
In addition to learning new skills, developing a flexible mindset also depends on you leveling up the things you’re already great at.
Nurture the Skills You Already Have
What web development skills do you already possess? Which ones do you consider your top skills? Don’t neglect these skills because you think you already know everything there is to know about them. Or that your skills are so polished that they can’t shine any brighter.
A flexible web development mindset is dependent on you continuously updating the skills you already have. Therefore, you want to ensure you’re updating your understanding of the basics of web development regularly.
As stated earlier, the only thing we can depend on is change. And the way web development skills are taught is no exception. So, ensure you’re expanding your understanding of what you already know to foster a more flexible mindset as you move forward.
Value your expertise but still be open to taking in all the new ways of doing things in the industry. Thus, bringing us to our next topic.
Stay Up-to-Date With Web Development Trends
Cultivating a flexible web development mindset requires you to stay current on all things web development. If you’re attached to the outdated, chances are it’s proving harmful to the longevity of your web development career.
So, you must stay up-to-date with web development trends and use them. This ensures your mindset is focused on flexibility, despite the complexity of the updates.
For example, one web development trend is designing your site for the younger generation. If they want more tech-centered features like voice and image search, you’ve got to be able to adapt to their needs quickly to stay relevant.
Now, let’s take an in-depth look at how serving your website visitors aids a flexible web development mindset.
Deepen Customer Relationships
Simply put, you’ve got to be flexible if you want to appeal to a broad audience. All of your customers aren’t from the same place, don’t have the same background, possess the same purpose for coming to your website, nor do they have the same skill level when navigating digital spaces.
So, web developers must foster flexibility so that they’re able to design web experiences that attract all people in their customer base. This means getting to know your customers personally. Mainly, you’ll want to understand the ins and outs of their behavior on your website.
Which pages are they visiting the most? Which page has the highest bounce rate? Which piece of content is getting the most engagement? Is the navigation efficient? Are we meeting accessibility requirements?
Answering these sorts of questions will help you develop a flexible mindset and, in turn, a flexible website that accommodates the needs of each visitor.
This last way to cultivate a flexible web development mindset makes the overall goal of becoming more flexible and agile in your development process easier to attain.
Become Knowledgeable in Data
Your collection, processing, and use of data are crucial to your website’s success. Data is also beneficial to website developers. It can help them identify gaps in the web experience and set realistic goals for website activity.
But most importantly, analytics prompt regular progress checks. These checks help you identify what’s working on your website and what isn’t. This allows you to adjust and improve consistently, aiding a flexible web development mindset.
Monitoring website data in real-time allows you to tweak your website to the needs and interests of your customers quickly and efficiently. In addition, continually adjusting your website design and development based on accurate data gets you accustomed to flexibility.
So, the best way to collect data on what happens on your website is through real-time analytics. You can do things like monitor brand mentions live and respond to them when they happen. You can also analyze these mentions in terms of the website traffic they bring and the quality of visitors.
Furthermore, real-time analytics helps you detect potential threats to your website, like data breaches. In addition, you can monitor the impact all of your content has as soon as you hit publish.
Ultimately, understanding and leveraging data allows you to bend but not break on how your website functions, feels, and operates.
So, are the results worth the work it takes to cultivate a flexible web development mindset?
Conclusion
Because things in the web development industry change so often, focusing on nurturing an adaptable mindset is absolutely worth the work. You want to ensure that you’re ready for the changing website needs of your clients and their customers.
Appreciating change and flexibility will lead to an openness to study the unconventional, learn new skills, and nurture the skills you already possess as a web developer.
Additionally, staying up to date with web development trends, deepening your customer relationships, and becoming knowledgeable in data all lead to a solid, flexible mind needed to be a successful web developer.