B2B marketers hate being reliant on developers. There’s not a networking event or conference I attend where this doesn’t come up. It’s one of the biggest frustrations, and for good reason. There’s a feeling of helplessness, followed by frustration, and often resentment when you’re trying to get something done on your website and don’t know when it’ll happen.

Having lived on both sides of this relationship, I have a strong point of view on how it can work best. I’ll write an article for developers soon, but for now, here are five tips for navigating developer dependence.

1. Plan in advance

The number one culprit when things go wrong is mismatched expectations. You should have a documented plan that covers:

• Who to contact when you need something (developer? project manager?)
• How to contact them (email, Slack, text?)
• Expected response times based on the type of request (for example, new features might go on a backlog, bugs might need attention within one business day, downtime is ASAP)
• Associated costs if the dev team is external (do you have a maintenance agreement? if not, how are ad-hoc requests handled?)

2. Document requests

The most common way to do this is through a helpdesk or ticketing system, which allows routing, classification, and setting urgency levels. Other methods include creating and assigning tasks in a shared project management system, or even using email or Slack. The key is to outline the communication channel and keep a written record. It protects you when things go wrong (“you said this would be live before our event”) and is useful for performance reviews and budgeting.

3. Use video for async communication

Recording quick screenshare videos is a high-bandwidth way to make a request or document a bug. It’s much easier for the developer to understand what you’re after when they can hear your voice and see your screen. This reduces back-and-forth and respects their time since interruptions wreak havoc on programming work. Video transcription is also excellent now, so include the transcript or a short bulleted summary.

4. Establish a shared vocabulary

Don’t assume developers know your marketing shorthand (“does GTM mean Google Tag Manager or go-to-market?”). Likewise, ask your devs about their terminology (“what’s a push? is that the same as a deployment? is a build the same thing?”). A shared vocabulary saves a lot of confusion and frustration.

5. Make requests early

Technical tasks that seem easy often aren’t. It’s better to get something on the radar as early as possible. Web development is an iterative process, and bugs often spawn more work. Nothing infuriates a developer faster than a last-minute request that could have been planned for.

Following these tips will help you deliver high-quality web experiences more reliably, with less stress and fewer surprises.