The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch

Wow, these thoughts are pure gold. No really, I hate the word "wow", and yet here I am saying "wow". 77 houris to the author Jared Spool. A teaser:

The VP leaned forward and asked me, "How do we orchestrate a re-launch on a site this big without upsetting our customers? Any change is going to be so dramatic that people are definitely going to complain. How do we do this?"

I leaned back in my chair, paused for a second, then dropped the bomb. "You don't, " I responded. "A re-launch is a very bad idea. I highly recommend against it."

The group around the table manifested what looked to me like a single confused look. It was as if they had a corporate standard for displaying puzzlement.

The Creative Director, who'd been very quiet up until now, broke the silence. "Are you saying that we keep the site as it is? Leave things the way they are?"

"No," I replied, "I'm just saying that you don't embark on a total redesign. There's another way to build a new architecture with a whole new site without the risks of a re-launch."

I explained that re-launches are a thing of the past.