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Now that you have completed the strategy phase of your growth-driven design website project, you are probably itching to get started on actually building your new site. Welcome to the launch pad stage, where you actually design a website!

There are a lot of misconceptions about this part of the growth-driven design process. Often, when people hear "launch pad website," they are concerned that they will be initially getting a site that is not aesthetically pleasing or does not meet their needs because it is not a perfect finished website. This is not the case at all.

The intention of the launch pad website is to design a website that looks and performs better than the site you are currently working with, but that is not a perfect final site. The launch pad website is the foundation upon which you will optimize and build from in the continuous improvement phase.

Launch Pad Website Benefits

There are several advantages to developing a launch pad website and structuring your web design process in this way:

1. A launch pad website allows you to get a site up and running quickly so that you can collect real data about your users and make your decisions based on actual data rather than assumptions.

2. A launch pad website lowers your up-front commitment. Since you are building a launch pad site and then improving upon it, you are able to spread your cost out over time, which in turn lowers your risk.

3. A launch pad website lets you achieve a quicker return on your investment. In the traditional web design process, a website redesign can take many months, and you are really operating off of your best guesses and assumptions. However, with a launch pad website, the site is up and running in a much shorter time frame, and you are making changes and improvements that are based on real data rather than on assumptions.

Once you have completed the development of your launch pad website, this is where the benefit of the growth-driven design process really starts to take hold. It’s time to dig into the data, challenge your previous assumptions, and begin the continuous improvement process!