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2016 In Review

The Year Tower Grew Up

January

Major Stories:

  1. Hide Pips
  2. Disable Backspace as browser "Back"
  3. Prototype how a merged repo of WTS + Tower would work and how could it be tested in a 'devapp' like environment of WTS+Lobby
  4. RTE is way too slooooow in Tower
  5. Kaizen: Discuss what will follow up launch of Multipage
  6. Get 20 new blocks into Tower
  7. Create a new "My Images" tab that works with UUS
  8.  Unhide the Calendar block once and for all
  9. As a Tower user, I shouldn't see unstyled elements for a long time every time I add a block or switch between pages
  10. As a Tower user, I should see titles on Tower Drawers
  11. As a Tower User, I should be able to select a theme without previewing

Sample January Signup: 

http://www.nothingnewwarehouse.com/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 1,259

February

Major Stories:

  1. As a Tower multipage user, I should be able to switch between pages in preview mode
  2.  As a Tower user, I should see a loader on the image cropper
  3. User uploaded images break after user registers their domain or changes URLs, on published pages.
  4.  As a Tower user, I shouldn't see my header/footer disappear when I click "Undo"
  5.  Block Swarmathon
  6.  "Start Over With Another Template" does not replace current template with the selected template
  7.  As a new Tower Buyer, I should be able to click a button on the confirmation page that sends me to the /landing page
  8.  Kaizen: Tuesdays with Tower
  9.  As a Tower user, I should not get sent to http://www.freewebs.com/error.jsp when Tower is down
  10.  As a tower user, when I go to select a stock image or stock icon and I scroll down, I should see a more button instead of it doing requests for 1000's of assets
  11. Test "Done" Replacing "Publish" in Tower and Domain variation
  12. UUS Front-end + Back-end Integration
  13. Drawers take too long to open and close
  14. As Digital (Tower), I should better understand how a matching service could be constructed (Either using EVA or otherwise)
  15. As a Tower User, I should see my onboarding choices generate customized Tower Templates (Business Name only)


Sample February Signup: http://www.sjicllc.com/


Cumulative Tower Users: 1,727

March

Major Stories:

  1. As a Tower user, I should see a "Publish" button on my preview page
  2. Launch "Done" Replacing "Publish" at 100%
  3. Add Vistaprint AMS Stock Images to our Stock Images Collection
  4. Investigate Search Servers for Tower Stock Images
  5. Tour App (Light) for FTE - Business Name and Logo only
  6. As a Tower User, I should see my onboarding choices generate customized Tower Templates (Header Image, Logo)
  7. Improve the /landing page experience (Video Change + Notify Me When My Site is Ready)
  8. Upload Stock Image Assets to S3 so we can use them in onboarding
  9. Block Swarmathon
  10. As a Tower User, "Set up Domain" should deep link to the domain set up page
  11. Implement a way to share UI components between Core and Service
  12. Port WTS to Sails.js

Sample March Signup: http://www.serenehomescleaning.com/ 

Cumulative Tower Users: 2,286

April

Major Stories:

  1. As a Tower user, I should be able to remove a background image from a block
  2. As a Tower user, I should be able to rotate all images, not just some
  3. Use ESLint to Lint in Tower Service
  4. Full Regression on MS Edge
  5. Users should get a value in their tag by default.
  6. As a Tower user, I should have a 5-step orientation lesson (builder basics) tour accessible to me through a feature flag
  7. As a Tower user, I should be able to say I don't see a template that works for me and why (through intercom)
  8. As a Tower user, I should see my industry change my prefab icons on the rest of my homepage (not just the header)
  9. As a Tower user, I should have all of my print product uploads available in "My Images"
  10. Download Images from GraphicStock into S3
  11. Explore Several Potential Ecomm Integrations
  12. As a user, I would like for my checklist progress bar to update when a finish tour(s)

Sample April Signup: http://www.kidsfunstop.com/


Cumulative Tower Users: 2,802

May

Major Stories:

  1. Add thinner headers for secondary pages
  2. Headers should have a "height" option
  3. Add "blog" and "online store" page types
  4. As a Tower user, I should have a "Preview and Publish" lesson in my website completion checklist
  5. As a Tower buyer, I should be able to purchase an annual plan
  6. Stop 'Magic Disappearance' of Pips (Social, Button) Without Links
  7. Pull images from AMS into S3
  8. Integrate Tower Alerting into PagerDuty
  9. As a user, I would like to avoid the stress of the word "industry"
  10. Ensure an endpoint for requesting a managed domain
  11. Check If Domain is Available
  12. Generate pages of dynamic templates on-demand
  13. Investigate how to run Tower smoothly in Firefox
  14. Add Domain Name to On The Road/Vistaprint Bus Website
  15. Domain ownership / provisioning spike

Sample May Signup: http://bullybrigadetraining.com/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 3,444

June

Major Stories:

  1. Add significantly more industries in onboarding
  2. Tower Site Building Animation for Tower Primary path page
  3. Show "Loading Blocks" in block drawer when blocks are loading
  4. Create New 'Dashboard' Microservice
  5. Understand SSO Flow for Tower
  6. Delete Ecwid code paths in Tower
  7. Create DNS records in PowerDNS for custom domain, managed domain, and create init scripts
  8. Ensure domains auto renew
  9. Turn Off "Share Website" Test (delete that code!)
  10. How Big is Stats? Spike
  11. Style the Contact Form Emails
  12. Change managed domain
  13. CCT domain history
  14. As a user, I want to register branded domains at *.{qa,prod}.rebelscrum.com

Sample June Signup: http://www.westmichiganmuaythai.com/


Cumulative Tower Users: 3,924

July

Major Stories:

  1. Hide Other UI Elements When I'm Editing Text in Tower
  2. Add a floating "X" to left drawers in Tower to make it easier to close them
  3. Import ~20 More Blocks for Design (and our Users!)
  4. Font Size in RTE should be better (SPIKE)
  5. Create 5 More Page Types (Services, Events, Gallery, About, and Contact)
  6. Tower Site Rendering at Domain
  7. "cancel" in CCT Domain History
  8. Domains dashboard SSO Support
  9. Block Height Customization
  10. Link to Zendesk instead of SB3 nanorep
  11. Add an entitlement system to Tower
  12. Get some indicator of successful SSO into new Dashboard iframe
  13. Remove the onBeforeUnload Dialog from Tower
  14. Add the "Already Have a Website?" Button + Logic to the new Tower Primary Path Page
  15. End point to set up records in a domain
  16. UI and Server Side work for recommended custom domain
  17. Everyone get orca-whale running
  18. Update domain service to post to SNS

Sample July Signup: http://www.hdgcoloredschool.net/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 4,315

August

Major Stories:

  1. Users should have automatic favicons from logos (icons or images)
  2. Get Site URL Link onto New Dashboard
  3. Prefill the Business Name in Onboarding from Print Product Data
  4. Hide Broken Undo/Redo UI
  5. Create Tower Stats Endpoint in Digital Dashboard
  6. Support for other generic TLDs
  7. Replace rebelscrum with vistaprintdigital
  8. Domain transfer - CCT dashboard button that updates our database/PDNS
  9. Set a Maximum Size for UUS Uploads
  10. Create a nomenclature for matching "components" with the PDT team (Jeff Zhang)
  11. Update CloudFlare when adding, modifying, or deleting domains and records
  12. Why can you still publish Tower to and view Tower at cancelled domains?

Sample August Signup: http://trainwithzein.com/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 5,412

September

Major Stories:

  1. Site Settings Drawer in Tower + Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools in Tower
  2. Add Packages to Tower Product Page
  3. Build the Plans Overlay for Tower
  4. Tower should know what Arial looks like
  5. Server code for pointed domains
  6. Custom .ca and .co.uk domains
  7. Add Online Store Entitlement to Entitlement system
  8. Get Tower on HTTPS
  9. Cloudflare Dead Letter Queue going crazy, filled with failing messages

Sample September Signup: http://sugarbeecandy.com/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 8,241

October

Major Stories:

  1. Shoprocket Ecomm Investigation
  2. Tower Confirmation Tile + /Landing Page Should work for UK/en-CA
  3. Tower builder fails to load for UK, CA locales
  4. Create a "UK Version" of the Tower Product Page in Optimizely
  5. Disconnected Tower Users Should Have a More Explicit Message and Be Blocked from Editing
  6. UI for .ca domain registrant contact
  7. Add Record to .CA domain upon registration with OpenSRS
  8. Digital Dashboard should call out to Digital Package Service to get localized pricing
  9. Make Tower the Default Product on /websites.aspx
  10. Modify the Behavior of the CARE and Multiple User Overlays in Builder
  11. Pointed domains CCT Domain History
  12. Make cancelled PAID domains great (available to register) again
  13. All Tower Services and Tower should use HTTPS
  14. Prevent users from changing their domain excessively

Sample October Signup: http://twilightforest.org/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 17,532

November

Major Stories:

  1. Add eComm Page to *PREMIUM* Users Selecting "Sell Products" or "Retail and Sales" Industry
  2. As a Cancelled Tower on PAID user, I should be marked as Cancelled in Intercom
  3. Images and Icons are changing when I preview a template in FTE
  4. (ICANN) New TPDNV Registration Agreement for Vistaprint Terms of Use
  5. Pair with Rebel Scrum to understand EH unprovisioned domain data
  6. Add 3 additional industries to FTE ("Events" to left)
  7. Use Numeric Values For RTE Font Sizes and rems
  8. Turn on *Upgrades Only* in Tower and on Digital Dashboard and Copy Changes
  9. Add A DIFY Testing Cohort to Tower and Pass to Intercom
  10. Ensure TuCows is the Designated Agent for our customers (PAID & Monolith)
  11. Reduce Domains in DLQ because of Cloudflare Plan error

Sample November Signup: http://paintandpastedecor.co.uk/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 26,496

December

Major Stories:

  1. Add Unpublish To Tower
  2. Consolidate site.siteMetadata and site.metadata
  3. Add pattern images as prefab header background options
  4. Explore how to Create Pre-Purchase Domains Test
  5. Mobile Audit
  6. Kill Beacon Code For Real
  7. Test clearer wording on Publish button
  8. Dont load /blank on prefabLivePreviews
  9. Retrieve custom domain name from PSS in VP Order Service
  10. Add call to disable transfer lock (PAID Domains)

Sample December Signup: http://themalefactor.net/ 


Cumulative Tower Users: 32,063 (December 20th)

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“It was very easy to use. Lots of nice options. I’m going to use it for my business.”

-Vistaprint Customer (December '16)

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