Project Background

MercuryPay, a mid-market payroll software company, attempted to launch a new automated tax filing workflow for 1,200 SMB customers. The launch failed after inaccurate state tax calculations affected 4.8% of payroll runs in the first week, forcing the company to pause the rollout and manually correct filings. You are the program manager assigned to lead the recovery plan, relaunch the product safely, and show what the organization learned from the failure.

The core team includes 10 people: 4 engineers, 2 QA analysts, 1 product manager, 1 compliance lead, 1 customer support manager, and you. The CEO has asked for a relaunch plan within 10 business days because the failed launch delayed a projected $1.4M in annual expansion revenue and increased churn risk among high-value customers.

Key Stakeholders

Engineering wants time to address root causes and reduce technical debt. Sales wants the feature relaunched before the next quarter starts to support renewals. Compliance will not approve another launch without stronger controls and auditability. Customer Support is managing 73 open customer escalations and wants a narrower rollout to reduce ticket volume.

Constraints

• Relaunch deadline: 8 weeks from today
• Remaining budget: $180,000
• No additional full-time headcount approved
• Compliance sign-off required before production launch
• 2 engineers are still spending 30% of their time on incident remediation from the failed launch
• The company has committed to 50 design-partner customers for the relaunch

Complications

1. A senior backend engineer who built the tax rules engine is leaving in 3 weeks.
2. Three enterprise customers are threatening to cancel unless they receive a clear relaunch date within 14 days.
3. Finance wants a broad relaunch to recover revenue quickly, while Support is pushing for a phased rollout.

Your Task

1. Build an 8-week execution plan for the relaunch.
2. Explain how you would incorporate lessons from the failed launch into roadmap, testing, and launch criteria.
3. Recommend the right rollout scope and trade-offs.
4. Define success metrics and a rollback plan.
5. Identify the top risks and how you would manage stakeholder alignment.