Mock stakeholder email. Fictional, for the hackathon.
From: Elena Vasquez elena.vasquez@octocat-supply.example To: Octocat Supply Delivery Team delivery-team@octocat-supply.example Cc: Priya Nair; Marcus Bell Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2025, 08:32 Subject: Launch week — what I need us focused on
Team,
We're in the final stretch and I want everyone pointed at the same handful of things. Not an exhaustive list — the "if these slip, launch feels broken" list.
In rough priority order:
-
Checkout has to let people actually buy. Getting from a full cart to a paid, confirmed order is the whole ballgame. This is the top of the list — everything else is behind it.
-
Marketing is counting on discount codes for launch week. The entire campaign is built around an offer, and we've told customers — including at least one big branch account Dan closed — that they'll be able to use a code when they buy. Right now the product has no way for a customer to do that, and support is already getting asked. I don't want launch day to be the moment we discover we can't honour what marketing promised. Someone needs to take this from "everyone agrees we need it" to a properly shaped, testable piece of work — please pull the context together (the launch channel and the support queue both have plenty) rather than guessing at the details.
-
Customers keep asking to see their past orders. I know this is already planned — I'm not adding it, just reinforcing it matters for the repeat-order accounts.
-
Product search would take a lot of friction out of large orders. Also, I believe, already on the backlog. Lower than the above for launch but keep it warm.
Let's not gold-plate any of these. I'd rather have the top two genuinely solid than four things half-done. Priya's going to help shape the newer asks into something the team can actually pick up — if it's not clearly scoped with a way to test it, it's not ready.
Thanks — this is going to be a good one.
Elena
— Elena Vasquez VP Product, Octocat Supply