Where operations, projects, and innovation collide and divide

To build it or to maintain it. That is the question. It’s a classic question in organizational design. The answer of course is you have to do both. I’m not talking about the decision of a product nearing the end of its life cycle where you decide between adding additional features or putting it in [...]

Communicating go-live deployments

The work of eCommerce deployments doesn’t end with go-live sign-off. If you work with eCommerce platforms then you know the happiness of after go-live deployments. The actual events of go-live deployments can be an adventure when unplanned events ‘happen’. But the work doesn’t end with the final sign-off and completion of the deployment plan.

There [...]

Rethink competitive analysis

Solution owners have the responsibility of performing a competitive analysis for an eCommerce team. It’s the process of knowing exactly how your site compares to the competition. We define if we are ahead, behind, or on par with key features that the industry and customers require. I’ve seen projects justified in the name of competitive [...]

eCommerce solutions ownership – customer focused results

An important role in an eCommerce operation is responsibility for solutions ownership and the results delivered to senior management and other stakeholders. It’s a senior role that focuses on the macro level results that  define the success and viability of the eCommerce team. In addition to the traditional financial and market metrics, the solutions owner [...]

eCommerce operation mind map

Statistically speaking, the posts I’ve written about the organizational aspects of an eCommerce operation get more views on the Merchant Stand than any other posts. It’s telling me that people are interested in ideas for how they can structure an eCommerce team and what areas of responsibility they should cover. I think the greater interest [...]