The Dominus Project

Who The Dominus Project is and how we met

The Dominus Project is a program of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University in Baton Rouge, with a simple mission in its own words: "Encouraging families to make Jesus, Lord of the Home." It serves families, parishes and students through a video podcast, events and writing. Brian Pedraza, Ph.D., directs the program, and Jennifer Usher coordinates it. After a first conversation with Brian and Jennifer, we proposed the whole thing: brand discovery, content strategy, a new design and a Webflow build, plus a six-month success plan so the team could keep growing the site after launch. Our designer and project manager took it from there.

"We are doing great and excited about the direction that our website is taking. Sergio and Camila are doing a great job."
Jennifer Usher, Project Coordinator, The Dominus Project

The challenge: one podcast, two kinds of audience

The heart of the site was the podcast, and Brian had a clear model for sharing it. Anyone could watch the first episode in full and teasers of the rest. He also wanted a parish path for families and a Patreon path for individuals, without stacking another membership tool's monthly fee on top of Webflow. A parish was already waiting for the first episode. So we looked at membership tools, and Brian asked the right question: is there a way to do this without another monthly cost? We built the podcast libraries into Webflow itself, next to events, posts and pages for each audience, rather than adding a separate membership layer.

How we cleared a university security review

Then came a step most small websites never face. The university belongs to a health system, and its information security team reviewed the project before anything went live. They sent security questionnaires for Webflow and for Patreon, a vendor assessment of Fri3nds itself, and questions about the domain, the privacy policy, analytics opt-outs and where personal information would live. We didn't treat it as a hurdle. We answered what we could, chased answers from the platforms, kept building and running QA in the meantime, and stayed with the university's IT team until every item was approved.

• 2 security questionnaires answered by Fri3nds: a vendor assessment of Fri3nds and the Webflow security review
• About 9 months from proposal to launch, security review included

How we launched The Dominus Project

Once the reviews were approved, the last details fell into place: episode summaries added, the domain Brian had bought pointed at the new site, and a final go from Jennifer. We chose to publish the next morning rather than at the end of the day, so the whole team would be online for anything launch day surfaced. The Dominus Project went live on thedominusproject.com, and a couple of weeks later Jennifer sent a note that said everything we hoped to hear.

"Thanks for all of your hard work making The Dominus Project Website all that we hoped for!"
Jennifer Usher, Project Coordinator, The Dominus Project

What changed for the Dominus team

A ministry team shouldn't need a developer to post an episode or add an event. The Dominus team updates the site themselves, and they are one of the clients who fully manage their own Webflow site. When Webflow announced changes to its simpler editor, Brian's first question was whether the easy path would survive, and we walked the team through what was changing. About a year after launch, Brian summed up the day to day plainly.

"I mean, it is very easy to use."
Brian Pedraza, Ph.D., Director, The Dominus Project

What happened after launch

About a year after launch, Brian and Jennifer came back with two requests. The first was a page for a second podcast, Heart of the Father, built to feel like the first, and live about six weeks later. The second was a way to see who the site reaches. We built a Looker Studio dashboard that brings Google Analytics, Search Console and Instagram into one view. When the team started advertising a big event, that dashboard was where they looked. More than a year and a half after launch, a third-party connector changed its terms and broke the Instagram data. We fixed it and recommended moving the account to the team's side, so their history stays theirs.

"Wow! It looks fantastic."
Jennifer Usher, Project Coordinator, The Dominus Project

Credits

• Client: The Dominus Project, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University. Brian Pedraza, Ph.D. (Director, The Dominus Project; Director, Theology Program), Jennifer Usher (Project Coordinator)
• Brand discovery, web design, Webflow build and ongoing support: Fri3nds (Serggio Montilva, design; Camila Ardila, project management; Jaime Pons, delivery and launch; Terry, development, podcast page and dashboard)
• Services: Brand discovery, content strategy, web design, Webflow development, CMS, security review support, Looker Studio analytics dashboard, Webflow support