Project Retrospectives · Published September 7, 2026
Retrospective: Launch Day Is Not the Finish Line
Users arrived on launch day and so did the problems. We now include post-launch operations in scope.
This was a mini program for local services, built in two months. First-day traffic was three times the forecast, bringing support calls, data anomalies and operations requests at once.
Problems in the first week
Concurrency exceeded expectations, the coupon endpoint timed out and some users claimed rewards twice.
Operations needed to change campaign rules, but the admin had no configuration, so every change meant a code release.
Metric definitions differed from what operations assumed, and an argument about order counts appeared on day one.
Changes afterwards
Campaigns became editable in the admin, so operations can adjust rules and stock themselves.
Rate limiting and idempotency were added to key endpoints, ending duplicate claims.
Scope now includes one month of post-launch support covering data checks and operations training.
Mini programs are cheap to launch and expensive to run. Counting the first month after launch is what makes delivery complete.
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