Another Monday, another numbers meeting. So far, their key health metrics—retention, revenue, acquisition—were slightly less than last year. Slightly was better than drop but not what she wanted to take to Rick. Allie cupped her hands around her mint tea, dreaming of coffee and miracles. Arash was going over the projected numbers for CountyFair and Advent calendar.
“I don’t know why we are looking at CountyFair. It won’t be close to shippable until February.”
“January,” Allie corrected. “It will go live in January.”
Noam snorted. Jheryn looked thoughtful and scribbled on his notepad. Allie spotted it, and asked, “Do you have an idea?”
Jheryn hesitated, but he had everyone’s attention. “If we put Nadav’s team on the freecrafting on Advent calendar to make sure the code is modular, we can reuse it for CountyFair.”
“It will make everything launch later,” Noam replied flatly. Allie couldn’t tell if he was hopeful or dismissive.
“How much later?” Arash spoke up.
“A week. Maybe two.”
“That’s cutting it kind of close.” Allie sighed.
Christie raised her hand briefly, then put it down and spoke. “What if we cut scope? We were thinking a full month of Advent calendar, but it is traditionally the three weeks up to Christmas.”
Carlton nodded. “We can adapt it for the other holidays. At least it’s not Thanksgivukkah this year. If we made the holidays have the same functionality but different themes, that should reduce the work for engineering.”
Arash looked at the numbers projected on the walls and sighed. “Are you sure we don’t want to goose these? A daily slot machine, or . . .?”
Kendra glared at Arash. “Do you?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “But we have no historical data on this kind of bold beat. I don’t have any sense if it’s going to give us the numbers we need to hit our objectives.”
Christie shook her head. “That would be like attaching a bobble head to the front of a Rolls Royce. Look, I’ve designed it to be viral but fun and make money. Please trust me.”
“I’ve been playing it nonstop,” Lawrence spoke up. “And it’s magical. Even the bugs can’t interfere with how fun it is. I say we don’t ruin it for a couple more bucks.”
Arash nodded. “I have a good feeling about it. I just wish I had more than a good feeling.”
Noam spoke up. “I like it.”
“And Noam hates everything!” Kendra teased.
Despite the mint tea, Allie felt her heart pounding. If Advent calendar went badly, she might not even be here to see CountyFair launch. She looked around the table. The team was talking happily about their favorite days in the calendar, about how fun the surprises were. She either trusted them, or she didn’t.
“Okay, folks. Let’s bet it all on red. Launch Advent calendar as designed, just pull back scope so we can double down on CountyFair. Let’s show SOS what the future of QuiltWorld looks like.”
“Yes!” yelled Jheryn, and the room erupted into laughter.