Post-Launch Maintenance: Best Practices for your digital assets

Post-Launch Maintenance: Best Practices for your digital assets

You've launched your digital product. The app is online, users are starting to arrive, the first feedback is positive. Mission accomplished, right?
Wrong.

The launch isn't the finish line—it's the beginning of a new phase. And here many companies make a costly mistake: they think the work is done. Result? After a few months, the product starts showing cracks:

• bugs piling up
• performance degrading
• features becoming obsolete
• users leaving for more updated competitors.
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The uncomfortable truth is this: a digital product without maintenance is an asset that loses value every day. But with the right strategy, maintenance becomes an investment that protects and increases your product's value over time.

Why maintenance isn't optional (even if you'd like it to be)

Let's start with a fact: software deteriorates. Not physically, obviously, but functionally. Libraries become obsolete, security standards evolve, browsers and operating systems get updated.

If you do nothing, your product that works perfectly today might have compatibility issues or security vulnerabilities in six months.

But there's more. The market doesn't stand still. Competitors launch new features, user expectations grow, new technologies emerge that change the rules of the game. A product that doesn't evolve is a product that dies—slowly but inevitably.

• Technical debt: small ignored problems become big and expensive problems
• Security vulnerabilities: you expose your users' data (and your reputation) to avoidable risks
• Degraded performance: slow loading, frequent crashes, frustrated users
• Loss of competitiveness: while you stand still, others are running
  
• Recovery costs: fixing everything at once costs 3-5 times more than maintaining regularly
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Maintenance isn't an expense—it's insurance on your investment.

Here are the four pillars of effective maintenance

A solid maintenance strategy is based on four main areas. You can't ignore any of them without paying the consequences.

1. Corrective maintenance: fixing what breaks

This is the most obvious (and inevitable) part. Bugs that emerge, features that don't behave as they should, errors reported by users. Some are critical and block product use, others are annoying but not blocking.
How to manage it well:

• Structured ticketing system: every bug is tracked, prioritized, and assigned
  
• Severity classification: critical (system down), high (main feature blocked), medium (anomalous behavior), low (cosmetic)
  
• Clear SLAs: critical bugs fixed in 24-48 hours, high priority ones within 7 days
  
• Root cause analysis: don't just patch it, understand why the bug emerged
  
  

The problem with corrective-only maintenance is you're always in reactive mode, chasing problems instead of preventing them. That's why you need the other three pillars.

2. Preventive maintenance: avoiding problems before they happen

Prevention is better than cure applies to software too. Preventive maintenance identifies and resolves potential problems before they become emergencies.

Key activities:

• Dependency updates: libraries, frameworks, packages you use need to be kept updated. An obsolete library is an open door for attackers
• Regular security audits: automated scans for known vulnerabilities, periodic penetration testing
• Code review: code quality verification, identification of problematic patterns
• Performance monitoring: keep an eye on response times, memory usage, server load. If they start degrading, intervene before users notice
• Backup and disaster recovery: regularly test that backups work and you can recover data quickly

Practical example: an e-commerce platform noticed slow performance degradation on some pages. Instead of waiting for it to become a problem visible to users, the team analyzed database queries, optimized indexes, and improved caching. Result: problem solved before it impacted conversision.

3. Evolutionary maintenance: growing with the market

Your product must evolve alongside the market and users. This means adding new features, improving existing ones, adapting to new needs.
How to prioritize evolution:

• Usage data analysis: which features do users actually use? Which do they ignore? Where do they abandon the flow?
  
• Structured feedback: periodic surveys, interviews with active users, analysis of support requests
  
• Quarterly roadmap: plan evolutions for the next 3 months, then reassess based on results
  
• A/B testing: test variants before implementing definitive changes
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It's not about adding random features. Every evolution must respond to a documented and measurable need. Otherwise, you're just weighing down the product.

4. Adaptive maintenance: staying compatible with the ecosystemtema

Operating systems, browsers, third-party APIs, regulations: everything changes constantly. Your product must adapt to not fall behind.

Concrete examples:

• OS updates: Apple and Google release new iOS/Android versions every year. If your app isn't compatible, you risk negative reviews and lost users
  
• API changes: a payment service you use modifies its APIs. If you don't adapt, payments stop working
  
• New regulations: GDPR was a glaring example. Those who didn't adapt risked hefty fines
  
• Security standards: obsolete encryption protocols, SSL certificates to renew, authentication standards that evolve
  
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This maintenance is often invisible to users but critical for operational continuity.

Building a realistic maintenance plan

A good maintenance plan isn't improvised. It's structured, measurable, and sustainable over time.

Budget: how much does it really cost?

A rule of thumb: annual maintenance budget should be about 15-25% of initial development cost. If you invested €50,000 to build the product, plan for €7,500-12,500 per year to maintain it.
This includes:

• Bug fixes and hotfixes
• Security and dependency updates
  
• Performance optimizations
  
• Technical support
  
• Small evolutions
  
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Major evolutions (important new features, significant refactoring) should be budgeted separately as dedicated projects.

Frequency of interventions

You can't do maintenance "when it happens." You need a constant rhythm:

• Daily: automatic monitoring, critical incident management
• Weekly: ticket review, urgent hotfix releases
  
• Monthly: security updates, minor patches, metrics analysis
  
• Quarterly: major dependency updates, performance audit, evolution planning
  
• Semi-annual: thorough security audit, disaster recovery test
  
  

Regularity prevents the accumulation of technical debt that then costs a fortune to fix all at once.

Team and responsibilities

Who handles maintenance? It depends on project size.

For small-medium products:

• 1-2 part-time developers (few hours per week)
• On-demand support for emergencies
  
• External partner who monitors and intervenes
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For more complex products:

• Dedicated team with full-stack skills
• DevOps for infrastructure and monitoring
  
• Security specialist for periodic audits
  
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Many companies entrust maintenance to the same partner that developed the product. It makes sense: they already know the code, architecture, technical choices. But make sure there are clear SLAs and penalties for non-compliance.

Monitoring: do you really know how your product is doing?

You can't manage what you don't measure. Continuous monitoring is the nervous system of your maintenance strategy.

Essential technical metrics

Uptime: is your product available? Target: 99.9% (max 8 hours downtime per year)
Response time: how long does it take to respond? Target: <2 seconds for web pages, <500ms for APIs
Error rate: how many requests fail? Target: <0.1%
Throughput: how many requests does it handle per second? Monitor trends to predict when you need more resources

Tools like Datadog, New Relic, Sentry give you real-time visibility on these metrics and alert you when something goes out of threshold.

Business metrics that matter

Technical metrics are important, but business metrics tell you if the product is creating value:

Active users: how many users actively use the product? Look at weekly and monthly trends
Retention rate: how many users return after 7, 30, 90 days?
Conversion rate: if you have conversion goals (purchases, sign-ups), how are they doing?
Session duration: how much time do users spend on the product?
Churn rate: how many users abandon? Why?

A sudden drop in these metrics can indicate problems even if technically everything works. Maybe a bug makes a feature frustrating to use, or a competitor launched something better.

Intelligent alerting

Not all alerts are equal. Configure them intelligently:

Critical: system down, mass errors → immediate notification even at night
High: significantly degraded performance → notification within 30 minutes
Medium: small anomalies → daily review
Low: worrying trends → weekly review

Too many alerts create "alert fatigue": you start ignoring them all. Calibrate thresholds to have meaningful signals, not noise.

Documentation: the investment few want to make (but everyone regrets not making)

Documentation is boring to write and always seems like a waste of time. Until you need it. And when you need it, you need it desperately.

Technical documentation

Must answer these questions

• Architecture: how is the system structured? What are the main components?
  
• Setup: how do I configure the local development environment?
  
• Deploy: how do I release a new version?
  
• Dependencies: which external services does the product use? How are they configured?
  
• Troubleshooting: common problems and how to solve them
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If you change development teams or add new members, this documentation can save weeks of onboarding.

Operational runbooks

Step-by-step procedures for handling recurring situations:

• How to manage a critical incident
• How to rollback a problematic release
  
• How to scale infrastructure in case of traffic spikes
  
• How to recover from a backup
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In stressful situations (system down, clients calling), having clear procedures avoids mistakes and accelerates resolution.

Changelog

Every change, bug fix, new feature should be documented with:

• Release date
• What changed (in understandable language, not just technical)
• Any breaking changes requiring user actions
  
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This helps both the internal team and users understand product evolution.

Security = responsibility

Security vulnerabilities aren't an "if" but a "when." The question is: are you ready to handle them?

Continuous security practices

Dependency scanning: automated tools that check if the libraries you use have known vulnerabilities. GitHub Dependabot, Snyk, npm audit
Code scanning: static code analysis to identify insecure patterns. SonarQube, Checkmarx
Penetration testing: ethical hackers who try to breach the system. Once a year minimum, better every six months
Security headers: HTTPS everywhere, CSP, HSTS and other HTTP-level protections

Incident response plan

When you discover a vulnerability (or worse, when it's exploited):

1. Contain the damage: disable vulnerable functionality if necessary
   
2. Assess impact: which data might have been compromised? How many users involved?
   
3. Quick patch: fix the vulnerability as soon as possible
   
4. Communication: inform users if their data might have been exposed (it's also a legal obligation in many cases)
   
5. Post-mortem: analyze how it happened and how to prevent similar situations
6. 
   

Don't improvise during an emergency. Having a clear plan makes the difference between a well-managed incident and a reputational disaster.

Performance: speed isn't a luxury

Users are impatient. Study after study confirms that every extra second of loading increases abandonment. For e-commerce, it can directly mean revenue loss.

Continuous optimizations

• Frontend: lazy loading of images, CSS/JS minification, intelligent use of browser cache
• Backend: optimized database queries, caching of expensive-to-calculate results (Redis, Memcached)
  
• Infrastructure: CDN for static content, geographically distributed servers if you have users in different zones
  
• Mobile: reduced bundle size, optimization for slow connections
  
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You don't need to optimize everything from day one. Use monitoring data to understand where the bottlenecks are and optimize what matters.

Periodic load testing

Do you know how many simultaneous users your system can handle before breaking down? If you don't know, discovering it during a real traffic spike is the worst time.
Simulate increasing loads in a test environment:

How many simultaneous users do you handle with acceptable performance?
At what point do problems start?
Does the system degrade gradually or collapse suddenly?

This allows you to plan proactive scaling instead of discovering limits in the most painful way.

The role of the right partner in maintenance

Managing everything internally requires skills, time, and constant attention. Many companies don't have the resources to do it effectively, especially SMEs and startups that need to focus on core business.
A partner like Huulke takes this weight off your shoulders. You don't have to worry about:

• Monitoring 24/7 if the system works
• Keeping up with security updates
  
• Planning and executing technical evolutions
  
• Handling emergencies on weekends or at night
  
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With clear SLAs and a dedicated team, maintenance becomes predictable: you know how much it costs, what's included, what the response times are.
And above all, you have a partner who already knows the code and architecture. You don't have to explain everything from scratch at every intervention.
If you've launched a digital product (or are about to), don't make the mistake of thinking the work ends at launch. Plan a sustainable maintenance strategy from the start.

Contact us to understand together how to protect and grow the value of your digital product over time, without surprises or emergencies you could have avoided.