Use Data to Reprioritize Checkout Launch

Project Background

ShopNow, a mid-market e-commerce platform, is preparing a Q3 launch of a redesigned mobile checkout intended to improve conversion. Two weeks before code freeze, your analytics team finds that 68% of cart abandonment comes from returning users on Android devices, while the planned roadmap heavily favors a new guest checkout flow for iOS. You are the program manager coordinating product, engineering, design, analytics, and marketing to decide whether to change scope.

Key Stakeholders

The VP of Product wants to keep the original roadmap to hit the announced launch date. The Head of Growth wants the team to pivot toward the Android returning-user issue because it affects near-term revenue. Engineering prefers minimal scope changes because only 6 engineers are assigned and one backend lead is shared with another payments project. Marketing has already booked a $120K campaign tied to the original launch date.

Constraints

The launch date is fixed for 10 weeks from now, with a hard code freeze in week 8. Remaining project budget is $180K, including QA and analytics support. The team consists of 1 PM, 1 program manager, 4 frontend engineers, 2 backend engineers, 1 designer, 1 data analyst, and 2 QA contractors. Any scope change that adds more than 3 story points to backend work will delay PCI recertification testing by 1 week.

Complications

1. The Android abandonment data is directionally strong but comes from only 5 weeks of post-release instrumentation, and event quality is known to be 92% complete.
2. A top enterprise merchant has requested guest checkout for an upcoming holiday campaign and Sales has informally committed it for launch.
3. The shared backend lead is unavailable for 6 business days during weeks 4-5.

Your Task

1. Propose how you would use the available data to make a product scope decision.
2. Build a 10-week execution plan that balances launch timing, revenue impact, and engineering risk.
3. Recommend what to launch, defer, or phase, with clear trade-offs.
4. Define success criteria, stakeholder communication, and a rollback plan.
5. Identify the top execution risks and how you would mitigate them.