If you have a web presence, chances are there's something about it you want to change. Maybe it's just a few tiny tweaks to your 'about page' or some photography that could use some refreshing.
Or perhaps, you've evolved so much that what you crave is a total website overhaul. Boy, can we relate. But, holy sweet mother of pixels — this is not an easy journey. We've hit more delays, stumbling blocks and snafus than any of us could have imagined. And while we're experienced makers in our ever-changing digital world, this process affirmed a few very important principles every modern creator should remember. 1. Great Things Almost Always Take Longer Than You Hope. I've witnessed this consistently across the spectrum of creation: writing, launching digital programs, crafting ads, creating websites and with almost any renovation. Sure, some big projects go exactly as planned — and that's AWESOME! But, great things take a lot longer than you initially planned. Especially if you're innovative and creating things from scratch. Keep your eye on the big picture of your business and life, and make adjustments. That said, here's an actionable take-away that can help big projects stay on track as much as humanly possible. Do This: Regular status check-ins are a MUST 2. An Inspiring Vision Fuels You Past Stumbles and Setbacks. Originally, we planned to launch this site near the end of 2015, then it was shifted to January of 2016 and finally we finished for a March launch. Look. Everyone on my team is a hard-core action taker. So naturally, everyone felt disappointment with the project delays. But the one thing that kept us all going was our common vision: how excited and inspired we felt by the website we were creating and, more importantly, how we envisioned it helping our clients customers. 3. Go For #ProgressNotPerfection. No matter how hard you work, how diligent and detail oriented your team is or how much proofing or QA you do... there will still be errors, bugs and oversights when you go live with your creations! Do NOT make yourself crazy over this. I can pretty much guarantee that you (or your users) will discover issues once you're live that will need to be addressed. These days, I notice little flubs like that in bestselling books all the time. A double word here. A misspelled word there. It happens. When it come to websites? You better believe that there will always be things to fix. With our ever evolving array of browsers, apps, operating systems and devices — it's nearly impossible for our digital creations to "behave" perfectly across all devices and all browsers, all the time. Yes. Do everything you can possibly do to create an outstanding launch. However, not only is perfect just not possible, you'll wind up tinkering away into eternity and never actually launching! Focus on progress, not perfection. Do This: For any digital project, make a list of your must-haves vs. nice-to-haves prior to your launch. Must-haves are things that must function properly 100% of the time in order to go live. For example, your email sign-up form. That HAS to work. And now, drumroll please, we're DONE.“Thank you so much for your hard work on our new, very much improved site. I am so thrilled to finally have a mobile-friendly site that truly represents all that we have to offer!” Tom Coughlin, President ~ Air-Sur, Inc.
