kill the website launch, zack rosen
TRANSCRIPT
Why website relaunches always turn into humongous shit shows
My Background
CEO, Co-Founder
Partner Owner
Three major website relaunches since 2009
Relaunched 350+ client websites
Over 100,000 website launches
Website Relaunches
Hey! I’m relaunching my company’s website!
This is fun!
More like
Nobody has left the office in days
That WordPress + SalesForce + Marketo form field integration feature that is a must have has taken 4 weeks, not 4 days
You have 132 of the old site’s 11,124 articles imported
Where are we on cross-browser and mobile testing?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
What launch day is supposed to be like
What launch day is really like
What launch day is really like
Why do website relaunches always turn into humungous shit shows?
Websites are inherently complex
The technology is always under-appreciated
The process requires buy-in by armies of stakeholders who mysteriously appear from the shadows of your organization to try and veto your forward progress, usually at the last minute.
#1
#2
#3
Websites are inherently complex
#1
What is your website?
Years upon years of writing effort by your content team Your website is
Your website is
Days and days of debate in your conference room about ‘what’s the most important thing we need to say’ on our homepage
Your website is
Thousands of hours of SEO tweaks, JavaScript embeds, and clever marketing hacks
Your website is
The bio of your company president that always needs updatingYour website is
Thousands, tens of thousands of lines of code (every one in which needs to load fast and be secure)
Your website is
Thousands, tens of thousands of lines of code (every one in which needs to load fast and be secure)
Your website is
The backlog of tickets, bugs, improvements, and design comps stretching out for years
Your website is
A stack of technology a dozen layers thick
24x7 On-Call
Security
High Performance
High Availability
Dev/Test/Live Workflow
Version Control
LAMP
Operating System
Hardware
Your website is
Content Management System
Your Website is ALL of these things
When you contemplate a relaunchthis is what you are staring down
The technology is always under appreciated
#2
Not built for professional marketers
Website Technology for Professionals
65%
35%
Website DevOps Requirements
24x7 On-Call
Security
High Performance
High Availability
Dev/Test/Live Workflow
Version Control
LAMP
Operating System
Hardware
Website DevOps
Software Engineering Skills Spectrum
Low Level Engineers
Software Engineers
Creatives
C
Python, Ruby
HTML, CSS
Systems Engineering
24x7 On-Call
Security
High Performance
High Availability
Dev/Test/Live Workflow
Version Control
LAMP
Operating System
Hardware
Website DevOps
What you expect website traffic to look like
4.75
9.5
14.25
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What website traffic actually looks like
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I’m In
terne
t
Famou
s!
The process requires buy-in by armies of stakeholders who mysteriously appear from the
shadows of your organization to try and veto your forward progress (usually at the last minute)
#3
Who cares about your website?
Who cares about your website?
CEO VP Sales Head of HR Intern
Everyone at your company cares about your website
More money is invested in Websites ($130B) than all of Digital Advertising ($114B)
42
Your website is your brand, online
Who are they comparing you to?
But here is what nobody mentions
Apple’s first website
It took them years of iterative improvements:
Why do website relaunches always turn into humungous shit shows?
Websites are inherently complex
The technology is always under-appreciated
The process requires buy-in by armies of stakeholders who mysteriously appear from the shadows of your organization to try and veto your forward progress, usually at the last minute.
#1
#2
#3
But what’s the alternative?
Let’s take a step back
What can website teams learn from software companies?
Damn you and your phenomenal
digital user experiences!
Damn you and your phenomenal
digital user experiences!
What in the hell are we going to do about:
?
Do you remember the days of crappy software?
What happened? How did software get so good?
How we used to make software
I got some great great ideas for our next
version of software!
Hurray! Now I’ll go call my husband and tell him not expect
to see me for two years.
Five years later
I can’t wait to install this sweet box of software I’m
buying in a store!
How Internet era companies ship software
Agile Software Development
Releases improvements twenty times a day on average
Waterfall Relaunch Months or years long projects
Big bang high stakes releases
Mid stream re-prioritization is death
Agile Teams Work broken down into weeks (sprints)
Continuous releases when features are ready
Re-prioritization is constant as you learn
Applying the agile model your website team
Who has an agile website team?
Deploy substantive changes to their site twice a week on average
How agile website teams workCompany
Julie
Sam
How agile website teams workJulie
Sam
Sam
Five steps to an agile website team
Find out how often you releaseHey Tony: Tell me, how
often do we release new featuresto our website?
#1
H#1 Find out how often you release
What’s your limiting step?
H#2 Get the necessary tools
24x7 On-Call
Security
High Performance
High Availability
Dev/Test/Live Workflow
Version Control
LAMP
Operating System
Hardware
Website DevOps
Don’t DIY your DevOps Implement Dev/Test/Live workflow
HURRAY YOU LAUNCHED!
Make launch day the best day
Manage your website in sprints
Week 8
Week 7
Week 6
Week 5
Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1
VS
#3Waterfall Agile
Design
Build
Release 1
Design – Build – Test – Release 1
Design – Build – Test – Release 2
Design – Build – Test – Release 3
Design – Build – Test – Release 4
Test
Hey Madeleine, Do you think we can get my request
into the next website sprint?
#4 Train your stakeholders
Do retrospectives and apply what you learn#5
What worked well that
we should continue
doing?
What did we learn?
What one thing should we do differently
next time?
At the end of each sprint, get everyone together to discuss:
Five steps to an agile website teamFind out how often you currently release substantive changes to your website#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
Put in the place the necessary tooling (dev/test/live)
Manage releases in two week sprints
Train your stakeholders
Do retrospectives at the end of each sprint
A special word to Agencies in the room
Ok, so I need to make a few small changes:
I’ve decided to put five bathrooms right here in the middle..
Websites aren’t houses
Why website relaunches always turn into humongous shit shows
Websites are inherently complex
The technology is always under-appreciated
The process requires buy-in by armies of stakeholders who mysteriously appear from the shadows of your organization to try and veto your forward progress, usually at the last minute.
#1
#2
#3
Waterfall Relaunch Months or years long projects
Big bang high stakes releases
Mid stream re-prioritization is death
Agile Teams Work broken down into weeks (sprints)
Continuous releases when features are ready
Re-prioritization is constant as you learn
Five steps to an agile website teamFind out how often you currently release substantive changes to your website#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
Put in the place the necessary tooling (dev/test/live)
Manage releases in two week sprints
Train your stakeholders
Do retrospectives at the end of each sprint
Why website relaunches always turn into humongous shit shows
Thank you!@Zack