Technological Decay Over Time
A story of setting and forgetting a digital product.
If you’re reading this, chances are your organization has launched some sort of website, application, integration, mobile app, or another type of digital product at some point.
Turn back the clock and remember Launch Day. If you weren’t part of a project like this, imagine it’s launch day for a new website. There’s an excitement in the air. Checklists are triple-checked. Multiple departments worked for months in preparation for this day, from sales to marketing to IT and operations, plus likely a digital product agency aligned in close coordination.
Everyone plays their part, and the website launches successfully.
A few months pass…
We’re post-launch, and KPIs are gleaming. Website traffic is increasing, and conversion rates are rising. Your customers and other website users are engaged and enjoying the digital experience you’ve carefully crafted.
Now, fast forward to five years post-launch.
In today’s business landscape, five years is a very long time. In technology, it’s an absolute eternity. Priorities have shifted over time, and those team members who were a part of the website’s creation are no longer involved.
The website has been all but abandoned in the online ether because the organization chose to approach this project with a once-and-done mindset versus treating their digital product as a “living, breathing” piece of software that evolves with the organization.
Choosing the once-and-done method has led to major consequences for the organization’s investment. Those years have not been kind to the website. In that time:
- Web browsers have advanced and changed, and so have devices used to access websites, breaking page layouts.
- Security patches for underlying code components have been issued, and the website is now vulnerable to even the most basic of attacks.
- Some code components have been deprecated or abandoned altogether. This means there isn’t even a security patch in sight, and vulnerabilities will have to go unpatched.
- File uploads are clogging the web server’s file system.
- Outdated administrative passwords are now compromised, allowing attackers direct access to your website’s content management system backend.
- Spam form submissions are clogging the database, causing a general slowdown in performance.
- Emails are no longer delivered to intended internal and external recipients due to changes in email security policies and with email providers.
- External links are now broken.
- User behavior has shifted, resulting in drops in the conversion rate.
- Content is obsolete and no longer serves the user’s goals.
- Navigation falters due to shifting user expectations.
- Web and AI crawlers deprioritize content due to the fact that the content is clearly dormant.
- Hosting infrastructure is aging, and website performance is suffering.
- Website backups are failing as those backup devices are full.
- Your organization has completely changed, and the now five-year-old website no longer reflects who they truly are.
After a half-decade of neglect, its existence is actually doing more harm than good, and you may be better off just shutting it down. Don’t let your organization’s digital product become like our hypothetical example. Each of these issues would have been avoided with a growth plan in place post-launch.
So, was this really all avoidable?
Effective digital products aren’t built in one sitting or as a part of one project but over a period of time. They succeed when carefully built and given continual attention, allowing them to grow and evolve as outside forces change. You’ve made the upfront investment and need to continue nurturing it; this is how to keep your digital product humming along, growing, changing, and serving both the needs of your users and organization.
Tim Haak
Founder & VP of Innovation
Tim Haak, Mile6 Founder, is an entrepreneur and internet veteran. In the mid-’90s, Tim began creating websites for local businesses in Central Pennsylvania. This was the birth of Mile6 in 1996. Tim brings innovation and compassion to everything he does. For over 25 years, Tim has successfully navigated tech landscape changes and the evolution of the workplace. As a day-to-day leader at Mile6, Tim keeps a firm pulse on team culture and client happiness. Tim is always approachable, always friendly, and always willing to engage with friends, family, and clients. Tim lives in Elizabethtown, PA with his wife and two daughters, and two dogs.