Stripping out the politics here, some good lessons for all of us:
1. Test your damn product before it goes live.
2. User feedback, user feedback, user feedback. Things like the confusion of the use of "app" (vs "website") and the lack of http->https routing scream of things that a developer would think are "obvious" but even the most basic user testing would reveal early on.
3. Stealth mode can be trouble. This may be a controversial opinion but I've learned to believe more and more that "Surprise! We're here!" approach does more harm than good. There are limited circumstances where this is not the case (situations where knowing the existence of a project can damage that project) but I emphasize limited.
Yes! Long experience has taught me that I can either look dumb in front of a small, friendly audience of early testers or a big audience of people with inflated launch-day expectations.
Not looking dumb is not an option. It is a big fucking world, and it will never fit inside the 3 pounds of meat that people somehow expect me to think with. Especially when some of that meat is dedicated to things like the ego and false pride that tell me that my big launch will be magically perfect because I am so smart.
1. Test your damn product before it goes live.
2. User feedback, user feedback, user feedback. Things like the confusion of the use of "app" (vs "website") and the lack of http->https routing scream of things that a developer would think are "obvious" but even the most basic user testing would reveal early on.
3. Stealth mode can be trouble. This may be a controversial opinion but I've learned to believe more and more that "Surprise! We're here!" approach does more harm than good. There are limited circumstances where this is not the case (situations where knowing the existence of a project can damage that project) but I emphasize limited.