No Pain No Gain

I admit that I don't subscribe the retro 80's doctrine "No Pain No Gain".  People often make things a lot more painful than they really need to be.

There is, however, 1 exception....IT upgrades.  Although they are for the best, they rarely come without pain and stress. 

Back in the early days of the dot-com explosion I was the point person for an IT project that coordinated an in-house inventory system with a then-state-of-the-art website - something NONE of our competitors had even considered, I'm sure.  All was custom coded and looked new and shiny by late-90's standards.  But the code in the back end was a nightmare and having to replace the programmers when they couldn't finish the project properly proved to be a very costly venture.  In the end as the industry moved very quickly into internet based sales we were the clear winners, and the fact that we could take photos of our own inventory, touch them up and use them in our marketing left our competitors literally scrambling to figure out how our product looked so flawless!

Having been through this I was certain that as technology developed that launching new websites would become simple.  It turns out that in order to achieve technological gain, one must still endure pain.  Going through the launch of the 8th website in my career there is clearly no way to avoid the pain that comes with creating, uploading and transferring content, design, tools and interactivity.  Although I can honestly say this has probably been the easiest transition to date (likely because I am not managing the project, just helping out and taking direction from others) I have come to realize something.....

It's all about communication. 
Few projects require more specific and detailed communication than the launch of a website.  So next time you venture into new website territory BE SPECIFIC.  Sketch, write, collaborate, share, criticize, applaud...do whatever it takes to keep all parties involved completely informed on your vision, but be willing to consider the advice of those more tech-savvy than yourself. 

Your website is your first impression...it will make or break your consumers' opinion of your business and products.  You will not regret the time, money and stress required to build a 'good' website.
Kim