In this ecommerce podcast, consultants James Gurd and Paul Rogers talk through their top 10 things for ecommerce teams to focus on to help them avoid common site launch issues and ensure everyone is working to a clear, structured plan.
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Preparing for a new site launch can be a daunting prospect and the hard work that has gone into the development phase can be undone if the migration isn’t planned in detail. The critical path to site launch has to be clearly defined, with all stakeholders briefed to know what their roles are and when they need to act.
Tl;dr – what we cover:
- Common issues and the impact these have
- Critical tasks and what to focus on
- How to prepare and manage stakeholders
Key Discussion Points
- What are the most common mistakes people make, what do people underestimate?
- Ten critical path tasks to consider:
- Ensure the project owner is available and Sponsor is briefed in case of need to escalate for problem resolution
- Planning with SI partner on lead up to and immediate actions after launch: define roles & responsibilities and day by day tasks
- Go for launch checklist: what has to have been done before you can push the button e.g. functionality that must be live, licenses in place
- Clear definition of which bugs must be fixed pre-launch and which can go on a snagging list
- Ensure core project team is available before, during & after: time must be dedicated (having a project engine room is really useful)
- Brief external partners who need to do pre and post launch work e.g. SEO agency to be ready to do live audits
- Agree with paid media team what happens to campaigns e.g. how long to pause for to ensure site is performing well before throwing traffic at it
- Agree with SI the roll-back plan if a critical error happens: how do you get the old site back-up and running?
- Decide if you do a full launch or phased launch by co-running the old site and gradually switching over more of the traffic
- Establish your reporting dashboard to know if everything is ok – for example, checkout flow and exit/progression rates
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