2 days
From takeover to launch
~80%
Inherited mid-build
100+
Change tasks cleared
On time
Original deadline met
Client snapshot
The official online store for one of the country’s best-known energy-drink brands, a name that grew from a single drink into a full lifestyle label. The WooCommerce catalog goes well beyond the cans: it carries the drink range alongside the brand’s apparel and accessories, with gender filtering, a wishlist, quick view, and both card and local bank payments. A launch here is a real retail event with an audience already watching.
What went wrong
The store was about 80% built when the developer working on it went silent. It happened at the worst possible moment, in the middle of the client’s final review, days before a fixed launch date, with a long list of requested changes still open.
The client chased every contact they had. No reply, no handover, no explanation of what was finished and what was not. The deadline did not move, and a national brand had already committed to going live.
How we shipped it
We picked the project up cold. No documentation, no walkthrough, no one to ask. So we read the build itself and moved:
- Mapped the inherited WooCommerce build to work out exactly what was done and what was still missing
- Worked through more than 100 outstanding change requests from the client's review, one by one
- Finished the remaining store functionality, the last stretch of the build the original developer never delivered
- Ran full QA across the catalog, cart, and checkout on every product type, drinks, apparel, and accessories
- Launched on the original date, with no announcement of a delay
The remaining 20% of the store, the full change list, and the end-to-end QA all happened inside two days.
The outcome
The store went live on its original deadline, the drinks, the merch, and the full catalog. From the outside, the handoff was invisible. The brand launched on schedule and never had to explain a delay to its audience.
Adopting an unfamiliar, undocumented store at 80% and shipping it in two days is not a normal build. It is a rescue: read a stranger’s code fast, clear every open change, and hit a deadline that was never going to move.
Metric
Before
After
Developer
Went dark mid-build
Replaced, store finished
Completion
~80%, stalled
Launched, full catalog live
Open change requests
100+ outstanding
Cleared in 2 days
Launch deadline
At risk
Met, on the original date
Tech stack
WordPress
WooCommerce
Card & local bank payments
Services used on this project
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Emergency recovery
