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Avoiding the boom/bust website cycle

2 Min. ReadDigital strategy

How to ensure that satisfaction in your websites remains high, while also levelling out your spending

A typical website is created in a burst of activity (and spending), then “launched” to the public. There is probably some really great thinking that went into it, but because no one can predict the future, you don’t really know if it will work or not. Over the years little or no money is invested into the website, and it begins to age. In hindsight you realize that some of those ideas did work, some were a disaster, and the rest somewhere in the middle.  After years of frustration you start the process over again with another big spend. The boom and bust website cycle.

What’s that roller coaster of emotion during the site creation? 

  1. This design is terrible!
  2. Glad we cleared that up, I love the latest version of the design!
  3. Oh no!  Something in the design isn’t really working out in reality.
  4. Phewph, we’ve got a workaround.
  5. Oh no!  We’re not going to get all of the fancy things!
  6. It’s going to be okay… it’s going to be okay… just breathe…

Contrast this with a project where you plan to make continual investments along the way:

Why isn’t that emotional roller coaster so wild?  Because you know that it can be improved upon later.  You also realize that you can’t know everything upfront.  You won’t know if your ideas are valid until you get them out into the world.  Then you can make iterative improvements based on real data, not just well informed guesses.

As an added bonus, your initial investment lasts longer.  Ideally you’ll be able to skip one of those big spends. 

Photo by Detroit Publishing Co.(w), publisher. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.