[jayers]

> I expect next go-around they'll want to pay some big design agency for a custom site; it'll probably be six figures. I don't know how I should approach that discussion. Any ideas?

Keep your ear to the ground and when you start to hear rumblings of this happening, pay a skilled freelancer to update the old website (or just build a new one if its easier) to fit the new marketing director's taste. Solve marketing's problem, save the company a bunch of money, be the hero.

[eszed]

Yeah, that's the obvious thing to do. My fear is that we (more directly: I) have burned trust. After all, they moved us away from an internal solution because marketing didn't like it; how can I persuade them that a new internal solution wouldn't be going backwards?

You'll have to trust me: from a customer-facing POV the old site was miles better than the new; it's only from an "Owner"-facing POV that the new one is preferable.

Um, I guess that hints at the answer: any new proposal has to start with their (Marketing's) experience of the product - flatter them to the max. This probably should start with my being a little more-attuned to their specific frustrations with their new solution. Hmmm.

Thanks for thinking this through with me, HN. Would welcome any other advice.