We are right up in your launch business and looking under every nook and cranny to make next go round much easier. Last week we went over Launch Debrief Widgets, 3 areas and 12 points, we would analyze to improve our launch. Today, we are analyzing all 12 points and will quickly prioritize refinements and crucial areas of focus.

General Project Plan, including Pre-Live & LIVE strategy

Looking back at your calendar and dates, crossover work for Pre-live and Live, and functional areas and sprints. . . we are going to ask some important questions that help us with timing.

1. Did we have enough prep time?
2. Why did we have so many crossover tasks?
3. What could we have been working on well before we entered the pre-live stage or live stage? Note: Its ok and normal to have regular tasks crossover in the beginning of the pre-live stage BUT it is my ultimate rule of thumb that once we enter LIVE launch stage (specifically that sprint) we only work on the live launch. It is an ‘all hands on deck’ sprint.
4. What functional area took longer than expected? How many additional days or sprints did each functional area need?

FAQs How many sprints or time needed in pre-launch and live launch?

Typically the pre-live stage lasts 2-3 sprints (equivalent to 4 – 6 weeks), however this doesn’t necessarily include the audience priming if you are doing pre-sales or warming up your audience before open cart. It’s normal to have some regular task crossover at the beginning of the pre-live stage, but as you near last sprint of pre-live you want your team’s sole focus on be pre-live tasks. Rule of thumb is we carve out an entire sprint to LIVE launch stage because a 10-day cart period fits nice and tidy there. Even if you aren’t doing an open/close, the same perspective applies.

By tracking your sprints and functional time required, you will get better and better at assigning milestones and deadlines.

Team, Support, and Resource Management

The next set of questions will help you open your eyes to who’s doing what work and what’s getting done on time, as well as how to improve communication and collaboration within your team.

1. Did my team know exactly what to work on when?
2. Was each team member prepared to complete their piece of the pie?
3. Were there any tasks or functional areas that needed to be split between two people?
4. Did I/we have point of contact with each team member during the pre-live and live stage?
5. Did the team discuss and collaborate during each stage?
6. When could we have had better communication?
7. Who did what and when? Was their progress impeded by a deadline missed or blurry responsibilities?
8. Did we make it harder on ourselves by recreating the wheel? Where could we have repurposed existing content or frameworks?

FAQs: How much do you stay in contact with your team during pre-live and live launch stages?

In Pre-live sprints we normally have weekly checkins generated automatically in Slack, plus we are in constant contact with progress updates in project management software. During live launch stages, I strive to have daily checkins with each team member and at least 1 (if not 2) video calls to maintain ultimate collaboration. I love daily standups and it keeps us on task!

Tech

Chances are high, you know what tech worked or didn’t work- BUT we can always improve our tech support and training for launches.

1. Do we have actual documented workflows and updated video walkthroughs on tech we use during launch?
2. Are the listed tech platforms necessary? Are we using all the options or just a few of the features?Are there other alternatives?
3. If there were workarounds, how can we fix them officially? Was it a necessity or a bandaid until we made it through?
4. Did we give enough time to properly setup tech?
5. Did we have enough testing time assigned?
6. Do we have a running bug list?

FAQs: Who is responsible for tech setup and daily management/use? What kind of trainings does each team member need? What is a bug list?

While I don’t setup tech on a normal basis, I am very particular (as you should be too) on documenting workflows and video walkthroughs so IF I (or any other non-tech support needs to) knows what’s happening. This is especially crucial to tech used during launches because everyone is working together and that means tech is almost always involved. I also love and have newly implemented a running bug list that is beyond traditional website glitches but also platform and scenario specific.

Ok, phew! That was a lot of think about.

Critical Areas of Focus and Refinement Priorities

Now that you have asked yourself the hard questions. . . we need to focus on the most critical area to improve first!

Look over the 3 areas: General Plan, Team/Support/Resource Management, and Tech. What was the biggest pain in your behind that made this launch go awry? Was there an epicenter of things that started to fall off? That is where you start.

Once you’ve handled the critical areas of focus, you need to focus on refinement points. These things can be easy fixes or tasks that your team can collaborate on. It’s always a good idea to continue and break down your tasks into single level actionable tasks so that if one thing goes wild, you haven’t halted progress of an entire functional area. Doing this Launch Debrief right after launch and including your team in the collaboration helps because it is also fresh on their minds!

Launching is fun exciting and also a pain in the behind. Without this Launch Debrief, I can’t improve our operational strategy or the individual widgets that make all the things move.