Our little minion heads were ‘splodin’
On Monday — as we rounded into the final week of the redesign project and were looking down the barrel of “There’s-still-so-much-content-to-be-migrated-and-a-bunch-of-bugs-to-be-fixed-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” — heads were exploding, limbs were falling off, neurons were firing in ways that even quantum physics couldn’t foresee (image the Higgs-Boson running in circles until it collapses … or maybe your three-year old child).
Sometimes its only by virtue of sheer exhaustion that you’re able to see the forest for the trees: “Hmmm. If the product isn’t ready, maybe we should push the launch date. What a novel idea.”
But then that darn Higgs-Boson starts running in circles again: “But. Nooooo! First we said Aug. 11, then we said Sept. 8, if we move the launch again, WE’LL BE FAILURES!!! Pant, pant, pant, pant, pant.”
Again, exhaustion. But the good kind of exhaustion. The kind where all resistance is removed. The kind you might actually call … surrender.
The heavens open. The light descends. Clarity pours forth.
Us. Light-dawning.
It’s kind of a no-brainer: What are we in service to? A date? Or our community?
We’ve promised a product that is fresh, on-message and usable. If the stuff you need is not there and things are wonky, then the site is not usable. As it is, there’ll be a learning curve for everyone simply by virtue of the fact that its a completely restructured site. You don’t need to be worried about whether your stuff is there. You just need it to be there.
Integrity doesn’t lie in rigidity — in holding firm to an idea that no longer works — but in flexibility. Fluidity. Seeing what’s true and operating from what’s revealed in that truth in concert with a commitment to your original objective. Our objective from the get-go was to provide the best product we can to all our constituents.
So we ask for your patience as we once again shift our timeline in order to complete our task.
Sept. 4 – 11 Testing and debugging finalized
Sept. 4 – 13 Content migration finalized
Sept. 14 – 22 Content owners/web editors review
Sept. 14 – 24 MarCom edits site per owners/editors review
Sept. 25 – Launch (I’m not even going to begin to use any exclamation marks here as I’ve probably overplayed that hand … uh … uh … ah! OK, I can’t help it! I know, I know. I need to go to Exclamation Mark Over-users Anonymous)
When next we post, may it be to announce a shiny new website.
As ever,
Your devoted MarCom Minions
Saint Martin's University 