Building a mobile friendly website used to be a thing to accommodate for the off-chance that the site visitor was using a mobile device. The mobile version of the site would have limited features, short to the point menus, and so on--essentially the watered down version of what you would see from your desktop or laptop computer. It is a feasible approach for websites with high traffic through desktop. (You can track that through Google Analytics.)
But this is 2015. At least in the U.S., the number of smartphone owners have overtaken the number of desktop/laptop users. This means a shift in the visitor patterns. Say, if the majority of your site users (and growing) are going to see the watered down mobile-friendly version of your site, you are going to fall behind. This is where the notion of a "mobile first" development mindset comes in.
From scratch, the engineer(s) designing the site would prioritize the mobile visitor experience. The content will be generated with a mobile audience in mind. The desktop version of the site is built afterwards with a few padded content and tweaks.
Obviously, the shift in traffic patterns would be different from site to site and company to company. Regardless, realize that mobile is now. It would be wise to closely monitor the shift in visitor device patterns of your website.
Inspiration for the topic: http://www.beyondnines.com/independent-voices/4-reasons-your-website-should-be-mobile-first-not-just-mobile-friendly/
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