used to treat deployment stuff as a launch week problem. i'd build the whole thing on a staging url, get the final sign-off, and then ask the client for their domain registrar or cloudflare login so we could go live.
almost every single time, that turned into a two week delay.
either the client had no idea where the domain was bought, or some old agency from three years ago still held the dns account, or their production stripe account wasn't even verified yet. meanwhile my final invoice is sitting there unpaid because the project isn't technically live, even though my code has been done for days.
when i put together velloxis, i ended up shoving the dns, hosting, and integration access step right into day one of onboarding, next to the brand colors and copy.
i don't even touch their server on week one. the whole point is forcing them to hunt down those logins while i'm still building, so if they need to recover an account or message their old dev, that clock runs during development instead of blocking launch day.
do you guys ask for production access and dns upfront, or wait until staging is approved?
Top comments (4)
Day one, for the same reason: the code is almost never what delays launch.
Two things I'd add to that onboarding step. Ask them to invite you as a member or delegate on the registrar or Cloudflare account instead of sending a login. It's safer for them, and you don't have to hand anything back when the project ends. And get the production Stripe account verified in week one too: verification can take days and needs their documents, not yours.
A short "who owns this" list on the kickoff doc (domain, DNS, email sending, payments) also surfaces the "an old agency still holds the DNS" problem before it costs you two weeks.
asking for delegate access instead of raw logins also saves you from getting stuck waiting on a 2fa code sent to the founder's phone at 11pm on launch night. i might actually add a "who currently controls this" field next to the dns step in the onboarding form just to force them to check early. what do you do when a client has no idea how to add a delegate on cloudflare or godaddy, do you hop on a quick screen share or send a guide?
A short guide first, with screenshots for their exact registrar, because Cloudflare and GoDaddy look nothing alike. If it isn't done in two days, a 15-minute screen share where they click and you say where. That step almost always gets it done, and the access stays in their hands, not yours. The "who controls this" field is a good idea too: it surfaces the "my old developer has it" cases in week one instead of launch week.
출시 체크리스트에 ‘DNS 담당자가 누구인가’와 ‘실제로 레코드를 수정할 권한이 있는가’를 따로 적으면 좋겠어요. 이전 대행사가 계정을 쥐고 있으면 담당자만 알아도 권한 회수에 시간이 걸리니까요. 개발 첫날 이 두 칸을 확인하면 코드가 끝난 뒤 청구까지 밀리는 상황을 줄일 수 있겠습니다.