Nearly every time we partner with a business on launching their site, we run into the same roadblock – they want everything to be perfect. Every word must be reviewed, every part and product entered, every page created.
Which is great. It is great to approach your website with a meticulous eye. The problem is that (like so many other things) your website is never going to be perfect. There is ALWAYS going to be room for improvement. So if you are looking for 100% before you launch, you’re going to be waiting for quite some time.
Here at Mindscape, we embrace a different kind of process for launching websites. It’s called Growth Driven Design. It basically means that we continuously look at user paths and performance data to make changes to a website as we go. Not every content offer needs to be created, not every headline needs to be absolutely spectacular. We take a look at user behavior, and decide what needs to be done all while collecting data and allowing the site to perform.
The fact of the matter is not every page will be viewed with the same frequency. Not every part number will be searched or needed. Not every word actually matters.
It’s better to launch something quickly, learn how it’s being used, and tweak it than to agonize over every detail. We live in a digital world that is fairly easy to manipulate. We aren’t dealing with an environment made of steel and concrete.
Example time…
Imagine how cool buildings would be if we could build them to 90% completion, observe how people use them, and then quickly modify them to suit the habits people are creating in the space.
Maybe the early morning sun is too bright in some rooms, so we add blinds or change the glass to something a bit more opaque. Maybe the open area that seemed like a very good idea is too loud, so people don’t congregate there. We could add some sound proofing or half walls to give privacy.
With a website, we have the ability to make these practical changes as we go.
Maybe there is a page of the website everyone wants to get to, but it is buried three levels deep on the site, so we bring it out to the top level. Maybe you have an offer that is performing great, but not enough people are seeing it, so we make it more viewable. Or maybe there is a page of your website that isn’t getting any views at all and doesn’t serve much of a purpose, so we repurpose any usable content and dump the page entirely.
There are many things you can learn by observing how real users use a website. So don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry about catching that one typo or perfecting your CTA button just yet. Get your site out there and start seeing how it is used. Launch and Learn beats Perfection every time.
There is a lot more to learn about Growth Driven Design. If you are interested in taking a GDD approach with your website, consider downloading our GDD ebook. It will fill you in on the major differences between traditional web design and GDD.
