When trying to build a website traditionally, it can be likened to trying to push a watermelon through a slim garden hose. It is like an individual being presented with a daunting task (such as the watermelon) with very long and apparently difficult path stated right before the individual. By the time he’s probably done with such task, it is usually not a true reflection of what was intended for the website in the beginning.
With the introduction of the Growth Driven Design (GDD) Website methodology, it makes it possible to slice the project into different smaller, manageable chunks which makes the process of carrying out the project smoother and faster as well. With this, the website not only performs better, but it also gives more value to the users. Let us take a look at the very first step in the process of carrying out GDD which is the launchpad website.
What is a Launchpad website?
A Launchpad website is essentially the main selling point in Growth Driven Design. Instead of going through the usual traditional process of design and wireframe trying to get what the users want, Launchpad website makes a way around this. With the launch pad website, a minimum viable product can be created in the fastest possible time frame and have an enormous influence. This can be achieved by taking into consideration the 80/20 rule where you get to identify 20% of the items on the website that will have about 80% of the general impact on the users.
A product can be launched, and within a short time frame, minor adjustments can be made based on the user data.
Click here to explore Growth Driven Design(GDD) Vs Traditional Web Design.
Why build a launch pad website?
Going through the traditional design process, the launching of the website signifies the finish line in the website launching. However, with Growth Driven Design, the opposite of this is the truth. In fact, the launching of the website is just the beginning, and that lays the foundation upon which the entire web design process is built and arranged. Growth Driven Design helps to work around the pain of guesswork by developing the website based on the data that is extracted from the real users to assist with any design decisions.
So instead of wasting useful time and resources trying to plan and bring forth an almost perfect website, really hoping to get some significant ROI, the site can be launched, and data can instantly be gathered from here. Going through this process has a high-speed impact on your website and business in general.
Click here to know Roles of website architecture in web development.
Getting to know the “Nice-to-haves”, “Pies-in-the-sky” and “Must-haves.”
A launch pad website only consists of the most basic and necessary part which will assist your visitors in understanding your business as well as inspire them to look for more information. It does not matter whether you are just starting the website from scratch or you are in the process of redesigning an already existing site, the most likely thing is that you already have an idea about how you want the finished website to look like. This usually includes a list of great wishes such as the homepage, about us page, product, and services page, support section as well as others suitable for your website.
The first step is sitting back and deciding on which of the items on the list is essential and are the core items that will assist the visitors in knowing who you are as a company or business, and why they should do business with you. Similarly, you can make use of the 80/20 rule as discussed before where you try to decide the top 20% that are driving 80% value for the site visitors. Once these items are identified, they are the ones to be classified on the "must-haves" list. This list of "must-haves" will then be used in the creation of the launch pad website.
Although it may look very scanty and not what you probably have in mind, however, you should keep in mind that you are not trying to launch a full-blown website just yet. The main goal at this point is to quickly present a new website for your audience and begin with the collection of user data and leads, which will be used for the continuous improvement of the site over time. This will ultimately lead to the efficient use of your time and money by spending far less for more result.
The next step is prioritising the items that are left on your wish list for the website. If you notice some of the things are impactful but are not however necessary for launch, then it can easily slide into the "nice-to-have" list which can be implemented later. For the remaining list which can be regarded as the “pie-in-the-sky” items, a good idea will be to keep them on the list while reviewing the amount of time and budget that will be needed for their implementation in the future, and you might not even need them at all.
After the launching of your Launchpad website, the last step involves learning about the behaviour of your site visitors once it goes live and checking how they are navigating and what they are actually on the lookout for. From this analysis, you will be able to make a much more informed decision on your next marketing decisions and what next to improve your website. This step is very much crucial in any GDD process, and it is made easily possible with the help of your launchpad website.
In a nutshell
The importance of a launchpad website in any GDD process cannot be overemphasised as it not only makes the whole process possible but cheaply and efficiently. It saves you a lot of time that would have been otherwise used in your guessing technique for coming up with your dream website containing things that you want and not what the visitors want in the traditional way websites are being built.