Website Launch Final Review — 2026-04-05
Overview
Final pre-launch walkthrough of the VCEDC website with Kathy Schmitz (VCEDC) and the Asymmetric team. The site was approved for launch that evening, contingent on a set of fixes and content updates identified during the review. Mark (developer) was on standby to push the site live once changes were applied.
Attendees:
- Melissa Cusumano (Asymmetric) — project lead
- Isalia Ramirez (Asymmetric) — implementation
- Aquilino Acedron (Asymmetric)
- Mark Hope (Asymmetric) — developer, not on call but on standby
- Kathy Schmitz (VCEDC) — client
Related client: [1]
Key Decisions
- Launch approved for the same evening, with fixes applied before go-live.
- Donate page order confirmed: (1) Mail a Check, (2) Donate with PayPal, (3) Pay with Stripe. Check-first ordering was intentional to serve older and rural businesses in the Vilas County area.
- Business of the Year links: Only 2024 and 2025 entries remain clickable at launch. Prior years' links are disabled until Tracy can connect them to proper news releases.
- Leadership page roles reverted to pre-January 1 state: Jim as Board Chair, Kate Farrell as Board Chair Elect. Tracy (VCEDC) will update roles on January 1.
- Post-launch content management will be handled by Tracy (VCEDC) once she has admin access. Asymmetric will remain available for support.
Action Items
Immediate (Pre-Launch)
| Owner | Task |
|---|---|
| Melissa | Contact Mark (developer) to fix missing submit button on Event Notification form |
| Isalia | Fix map default view on Contact Us page — currently resets to middle of ocean |
| Isalia | Reconfigure Donate page with three options in correct order (Check → PayPal → Stripe) |
| Isalia | Revert Leadership page: Jim → Board Chair, Kate Farrell → Board Chair Elect |
| Isalia | Disable links for Business of the Year entries prior to 2024 |
| Isalia | Replace "Endless Forest" homepage photo (Brad & Ruby) with a winter-themed photo from the tourism library |
| Mark | Push site live once all fixes are confirmed |
Post-Launch
| Owner | Task |
|---|---|
| Melissa | Coordinate with Tracy to configure form-to-KIT integration (both Contact Us and Event Notification forms) |
| Melissa | Grant Tracy admin access to the new site |
| Kathy | Send Tracy's contact info to Melissa |
| Kathy | Locate and send news releases for past Business of the Year winners to Tracy and Asymmetric |
| Tracy (VCEDC) | Update Leadership page roles on January 1 |
| Tracy (VCEDC) | Link past Business of the Year entries to their respective news releases |
| Tracy (VCEDC) | Update Business of the Month winner photo (Eagle River Animal Hospital plaque) once re-photographed |
Issues Identified
Event Notification Form — Missing Submit Button
The form's submit button disappeared after a recent developer update. Melissa flagged this during the live review and immediately moved to contact Mark. A test submission was successfully received by Kathy during the call, confirming the form itself was routing correctly — the button rendering was the isolated issue.
Contact Us Page — Map Resets to Ocean
The embedded map on the Contact Us page was defaulting to a view of the open ocean rather than the VCEDC location. Likely caused by the same developer update that affected the form. Isalia noted this for immediate fix.
Homepage Photo — "Endless Forest" / Brad & Ruby
The current hero photo is pixelated and features Brad and Ruby, who were associated with the old website. The photo is also approximately five years old. Decision made to replace with a winter-themed image from the Vilas County tourism photo library. A specific candidate (a child in a winter scene) was selected during the call.
Donate Page — Layout and Order
The donate page needed restructuring into three distinct options. Kathy specified the order explicitly, prioritizing "Mail a Check" first to accommodate older businesses and community members who prefer traditional payment methods.
Leadership Page — Incorrect Roles
The page had been updated prematurely to reflect post-January 1 roles, listing Kate Farrell as Board Chair. This was corrected during the call: Jim returns to Board Chair, Kate to Board Chair Elect. Tracy will make the official update on January 1.
Business of the Year — Links to Wrong Pages
Past award winner entries were linking to generic "Business of the Month" pages, which contain incorrect copy (including a "nominate a business of the month" call to action). Decision: disable all links prior to 2024. Tracy will later link each year to the correct news release. The underlying pages for prior years may be removed or repurposed once Tracy reviews them.
Post-Launch Integration: Forms → KIT
Both the Contact Us and Event Notification forms need to automatically populate VCEDC's KIT email system. Kathy confirmed this was working on the previous site. Tracy manages the KIT account and will need to be looped in to configure the integration. Melissa does not currently have KIT login credentials.
"If once people send me a notification, it should automatically be populated into KIT." — Kathy Schmitz
Context & Notes
- The project had experienced some friction leading into this call, with Kathy expressing frustration on the prior Friday about changes not being implemented. The tone of this call was constructive and forward-looking.
- The site is large — the previous site had approximately 300 pages; the new site is expected to be significantly leaner.
- Stripe payment functionality cannot be fully tested until the site is live.
- Asymmetric flagged that post-launch redirect monitoring will begin immediately after go-live.
- Kathy indicated she would share the live site with the VCEDC board and expected some additional feedback to come in during the week.
Transcript Excerpts
On launch approval:
"Go ahead and go live. Make the changes that we talked about today. Go live." — Kathy Schmitz
On donate page order rationale:
"We still have, you know, we're very rural and a lot of older businesses that we work with, and there's a lot of people that still write checks out." — Kathy Schmitz
On KIT integration:
"It should automatically be populated into KIT, because if you want notifications to sign up for events, that means that we need to have you in our system." — Kathy Schmitz
On go-live timing:
"It's actually probably the best time because then if it takes a few hours, it's at night instead of during the day." — Melissa Cusumano