Three myths about launch planning

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. A few things about launch planning that get repeated more often than they get checked.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

“It only matters for big sites”

Never launch on a Friday afternoon. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

“We can deal with it after launch”

Sometimes true, usually expensive. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it.

“Our platform handles it”

Announce it once the thing is verifiably working. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

The short version

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about launch planning before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Announce it once the thing is verifiably working — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.