Executive summary
Facing a long-term decline in circulation and advertising revenue, the client modernised its magazine webshop. Frontwalker led project management and requirements for a new shop offering traditional and digital magazine subscriptions, as well as flexible digital gift cards, delivered in time for the Christmas campaign season.
The challenge
1. Business challenge
The client needed to modernise its digital storefront in response to declining circulation and advertising revenue, while introducing digital gift cards that gave recipients flexibility in choosing their subscription and meeting a hard launch deadline tied to the Christmas marketing campaign calendar.
Key business challenges included:
- The client, like other publishers, faced a long-term decline in circulation and advertising revenue
- Digitalising the storefront was essential to sustaining a successful publishing business
- The new shop needed to support digital gift cards that let the recipient choose their own subscription, rather than the giver deciding upfront
- The launch needed to hit a hard deadline tied to the Christmas marketing campaign calendar
2. Technical challenge
The project required coordinated requirements definition, integration with three existing systems, and a consistent user experience across mobile and desktop devices, supported by an efficient testing and reporting process.
Key technical challenges included:
- A functional requirements specification needed to be developed jointly with the business and development teams.
- Integration was required with three existing systems: the central subscription register, a new customer-relationship system, and an external payment solution.
- The solution needed to perform equally well on mobile and desktop.
- An efficient testing and reporting model was required, built around the Trello cloud tool.
What we did
1) Frontwalker’s approach and solution
Frontwalker led project management and requirements definition, coordinating business stakeholders and distributed development resources to deliver the new webshop within a tightly defined timeline. The work included developing the subscription and gift-card functionality, coordinating integrations with existing systems, and establishing a Trello-based testing and reporting model.
2) Delivered solution
- A new webshop offering both traditional and digital magazine subscriptions.
- A digital gift-card feature allowing the giver to purchase a gift without pre-selecting the recipient's specific subscription.
- Integration across the central subscription register, customer-relationship system and external payment provider.
3) Engineering & delivery
- Agile project leadership involving business stakeholders in Stockholm and development resources in Malmö.
- A testing and reporting model built on Trello to keep the tightly time-boxed project on track.
- Continuous communication with the project team, steering group and publishing leadership throughout the project.
4) Collaboration model
- Close collaboration primarily with the client's Digital Business Development and Marketing functions.
- An agile delivery model bridging distributed business and development teams.
Business impact / results
Outcomes achieved
- The new webshop launched on schedule in October 2014, ahead of the critical holiday sales period.
- The solution became a template for several subsequent campaign tools within the publishing house.
- A mobile-equal experience supported customers regardless of the device they used.
