The Cost of Hesitation: How Slow Website Rollouts Undermine Growth

The pace of business today leaves little room for hesitation. Yet, many organizations unintentionally hold themselves back when it comes to digital change—especially with their websites. A traditional website redesign is predictable in that it follows a strict plan, design, develop, test, launch, and leave process, but it is flawed and often fails to deliver meaningful results when they’re needed most.

Instead of accelerating growth, a slow rollout leaves businesses playing catch-up. At COLAB, we view this process differently. Through our fast to First Public Release (FPR) approach, we prioritize speed, insight, and value without sacrificing quality. Today, I’ll explain how organizations can avoid the pitfalls of drawn-out redesigns and adopt a faster, iterative strategy to fuel their growth.

Balancing Speed and Precision

It’s important to note that while being fast to market can provide significant advantages, launching a site that could be more refined isn’t the right approach for every organization or project. Some scenarios demand a stronger focus on precision before any public launch. At COLAB, we recognize that one size does not fit all. We also offer alternate solutions where a more polished final product takes precedence over speed.

These alternatives embrace the same iterative principles as our First Public Release (FPR) approach but delay the external launch in favor of more robust internal review phases. To achieve alignment with business objectives, we involve key stakeholders early and allow them to test the work thoroughly within a controlled environment. This strategy ensures quality, stability, and alignment before the public launch. These alternatives are designed to mitigate risks while still maintaining momentum.

In the rest of this article, we’ll focus on projects where fast-to-market makes sense.

The Downsides of a Traditional Redesign  

A typical website redesign can be a mammoth undertaking. The process often involves large teams, months of planning, and extended development timelines. These characteristics make sense on the surface—businesses want polished, near-perfect products to present to customers. However, this structure comes with several drawbacks:

1. Delayed Value Delivery: Traditional projects take months, even years, to complete. During this period, your website isn’t improving, insights are at a standstill, and competitors have ample time to innovate.
2. Higher Risk of Missed Expectations: Putting time, money, and effort into a design process over many months doesn’t guarantee success. Stakeholder and consumer expectations can shift over time, and by the time the redesign is ready for launch, the market may have already moved on.
3. Missed Opportunity for Insights: Long timelines delay access to valuable customer data. Understanding user behavior should be an ongoing process, not something waited on for a single launch.

What is the First Public Release (FPR)?  

At COLAB, we suggest a different approach. Our FPR strategy embraces the principles of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) philosophy borrowed from the startup world, but tailors the concept to the needs of modern businesses. That is to say that you can’t launch an MVP and expect it do build value. Often, MVPs require a full rebuild, wasting time and energy that would be better spent elsewhere.

FPR, in contrast, prioritizes early delivery of a live experience and is focused on core functionality and immediate impact. It focuses on high-quality code and uses techniques and frameworks that are highly flexible. These choices allow us to get the benefits of an MVP (immediate feedback) without the drawbacks (wasted effort).

Here are some of the core ideas:

• Launch Fast and Iterate: Instead of holding back for perfection, the FPR aims to get a functional version of your site into the hands of real users as quickly as possible. This early launch becomes a testing ground for collecting data and gathering feedback.  
• Focus on the Essentials: By delivering the most important features first, your business can start seeing value—and your customers can begin engaging—while the site evolves.
• Start Learning Immediately: Early launches allow businesses to gather insights from user behavior and adapt improvements based on real-world needs, not assumptions.  

This iterative approach reduces risk, delivers immediate value, and keeps organizations strategically flexible. While not the primary intent, a bonus side effect is that this provides early wins to the internal teams involved as they quickly see the results of their work. High morale in a time of transition is critical to retaining talent and keeping forward momentum.

The Benefits of Moving Quickly  

Organizations that adopt a First Public Release achieve results faster, which widens their competitive edge. With our clients, we’ve seen these results over and over. Here’s why it matters:

1. Faster ROI: By launching sooner, you can start generating returns on your digital investment earlier. Even a simple, early iteration of your site will deliver more value than waiting months to see results.
2. Agility in a Changing Market: With continuous updates and a flexible roadmap, an FPR approach allows you to pivot or adjust based on the shifting needs of your market.
3. Stronger Stakeholder Confidence: Frequent iterations show progress and build confidence within your organization. Instead of waiting for a single release, stakeholders can see tangible improvements over time.
4. User-Centered Innovation: Once real users interact with the site, businesses gain direct insight into what works and what doesn’t. This learning process fuels innovation grounded in real-world behavior.

Why FPR is the Future of Digital Growth  

Hesitation in digital rollouts deprives your business of opportunities to grow and adapt. While traditional redesigns aim for a big, singular reveal, the reality is that the slow build often comes at too high a cost. Time is a non-renewable resource, and inaction can lead to missed objectives and falling behind the competition.  

Through an FPR approach, we’ve helped businesses shift their mindset and realize greater value faster. If digital innovation is the engine of growth, then iteration is the fuel it needs to thrive.

Rethink “Perfect”  

While it is tempting to aim for perfection, the truth is that having a “perfect” or even a nearly perfect website is overvalued. The most successful organizations we’ve seen prioritize speed, insight, and adaptability over lengthy and rigid processes.

If your business is ready to move forward faster, it may be time to rethink how you approach your next digital project. Taking an FPR approach could unlock the value you’ve been waiting for—or even generate new opportunities you never anticipated.

At COLAB, we help organizations implement faster, smarter digital solutions built to deliver impact from day one. Reach out to our team to learn more about how we can help your business take the lead.