Ultima Academy — Launch Plan

How the work flows

Deliberately sequential where it matters: nothing gets designed or written until the thing it describes actually exists and works.

1 Confirm the features Alan decides 23 – 27 Jul

2 Build every feature and flow Build side 28 Jul – 5 Aug

3 Refine on the real site JM + Leo & Ruby ∥ backend & security 6 – 10 Aug

4 Test, approve, deploy Everyone 11 – 13 Aug

Phase 3 runs two streams at once — content and visuals refine the pages while the build side hardens the accounts, database and security underneath.

The five dates that decide the launch

Everything else can move. These cannot — each one releases the next phase, so a day lost here is a day lost at the end.

Mon 27 JulFeatures agreedAlan's answers to the feature checklist are in. Nothing gets built twice.

Wed 5 AugEverything worksEvery page, feature and user journey functioning end to end, ready to be refined.

Mon 10 AugCopy & visuals inFinal text from JM and the visual pack from Leo & Ruby, both against the live build.

Wed 12 AugSign-offTeam review complete, manager approval given.

Thu 13 AugGo liveTwo days of buffer before the promised date.

The three weeks on a calendar

Twenty-two days from kick-off to go-live. Amber days are handovers between people — each one has to land on time for the next phase to start.

July 2026

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23Kick-off

24Review link

25

26

27Features agreed

28Build starts

29

30

31

August 2026

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun

1

2

3

4

5All works

6Refine starts

7

8

9

10Copy + visuals

11Apply + test

12Sign-off

13GO LIVE

14Buffer

15Deadline

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

Project days Handover deadline Go live Buffer before the promised date

What launches on 15 August — and what deliberately doesn't

Three weeks with one developer buys a complete, polished public site with real accounts. Everything requiring cross-team data or a rewards engine ships after launch, once the site is earning its keep.

In scope — version 1.0

Six public pages, final visuals and copy, English and Simplified Chinese
Real member accounts — sign up, log in, password reset, social login
Membership levels as agreed in the blueprint, with content unlocking by level
Course catalogue and progress tracking that survives logout
Gated content capturing email and phone for sales follow-up
Webinar registration captured to the member record
Live on Cloudflare with our own domain, mobile-ready, accessibility standard met

Deferred — version 1.1, September

Points displayed — badges, standing and leaderboard (points are counted from day one, just not shown)
Deposit match for existing clients
Referral system for member-get-member
Partner dashboard on live data — ships at launch as a demo view only
Community feed, expert sessions, forum — already labelled "coming soon" on the site
Downloadable reports and e-books as real files

Phase by phase

Owner tags: ALAN manager · JM content · LEO · RUBY visual design · BUILD Louis

Phase 1 Confirm the features Thu 23 – Mon 27 Jul

Thu 23Start the domain request. Ask group IT for the Academy web address and certificate. Longest lead time on the plan and entirely outside our control — it must be raised today.ALAN

Thu 23Feature checklist sent — twenty-two questions, most answerable with a tick, each with a recommended answer already filled in.BUILD

Thu–SunAnswer the checklist. Membership levels, what each unlocks, points rules, who does the manual client matching, and the compliance view on gating education behind a funded account.ALAN

Thu–FriStand up the review site — one link the whole team uses to see the current build and leave comments directly on the page.BUILD

Fri–SunBuild the parts that no answer can change — page shells, navigation, the account screens and the lesson framework.BUILD

Mon 27Features agreed and written into the blueprint. This is the specification the build follows. Anything raised after today goes to the September list by default.ALL

Phase 2 Build every feature and flow Tue 28 Jul – Wed 5 Aug

Tue–FriBuild the member system — sign up, log in, password reset, social login, the member record, and the level rules that decide what each person can open.BUILD

Mon–WedBuild every remaining page and journey — course catalogue, lesson pages, progress tracking, webinar registration, gated content, the upgrade request flow.BUILD

ThroughoutDraft the copy from the agreed feature list, so text is ready to drop in as soon as the pages exist. Final wording is settled in Phase 3, against the real screens.JM

Wed 29 JulCompliance direction confirmed for the copy, before it is all written. A regulated education site needs its disclaimers agreed early, not at the end.ALAN

Wed 5 AugEverything works. Every feature and journey functioning end to end with placeholder text and stock visuals. The site is now a real thing that can be reviewed rather than imagined.BUILD

Phase 3 Refine on the real site, while the backend is hardened Thu 6 – Mon 10 Aug

Thu–MonFinalise the copy on the working pages — headlines, course descriptions, buttons, error messages and member emails, in both languages. Written against real screens, so length and tone actually fit.JM

Thu–MonVisual refinement pack — brand-correct colour, type, spacing and imagery applied to pages that already work, plus the artwork the site needs. Delivered in two batches so nothing waits until the last day.LEO · RUBY

Thu–MonBackend and safety, in parallel — production database, access rules so members can only ever read their own record, rate limiting, password and session hardening, backups, and a full pass over the account flows.BUILD

Fri 7First batch of refinements delivered and applied over the weekend, so Monday's batch is small.ALL

Mon 10Copy and visuals complete; backend done. From here the work is applying and fixing, not adding.ALL

Phase 4 Test, approve, deploy Tue 11 – Thu 13 Aug

Tue 11Apply the final refinements and run the full test pass — both languages, both colour themes, phone and desktop, every account flow from sign-up to password reset.BUILD

Wed 12Team review, all in one sitting. Everyone walks the site and leaves comments on the review link. One consolidated list, not four inboxes. Anything not fixable in a day is logged for September.ALL

Wed 12Sign-off. Manager approves the site as launch-ready and confirms the go-live window.ALAN

Thu 13Deploy. Live on the real address, with the site checked again once it is public. The platform team assists with publishing only.BUILD

Fri 14 – Sat 15Buffer and monitoring. Two clear days before the promised date to catch anything that only appears in the real world.ALL

One link, not twenty files

The biggest time cost on a project this size is feedback arriving in five places at once. From this week there is exactly one place to look and one place to comment.

1The review siteA private copy of the real site, updated every time something changes. Always shows the current version — no attachments, no "which file is latest".

2Comment where you see itClick any part of the page and leave a note attached to that exact spot. Everyone sees the same list, so nothing is lost in chat.

3Version historyEvery change is recorded automatically with a date and a description, and any earlier version can be opened again.

4Figma stays for designDesign work continues in Figma as usual. Once a refinement is agreed it moves to the review site — the built page is what we discuss.

Who owns what

Five people, four clear lanes. The important division: features and page structure come from the build side; Leo and Ruby make it look right; JM makes it read right. Each deliverable has exactly one owner — shared ownership is how deadlines slip.

Who	Owns	Must deliver by
Alan · Manager	Feature decisions, domain and IT requests, compliance sign-off, final approval. Unblocks anything that needs another department.	Domain request 23 Jul · Features 27 Jul · Sign-off 12 Aug
JM · Content	All written copy in both languages, including course descriptions, buttons and the emails members receive.	Final copy 10 Aug
Leo & Ruby · Design	Visual quality and brand consistency across the built site — colour, type, spacing, imagery, icons and illustrations, delivered as a Figma refinement pack plus exported assets. They do not define features or page structure.	Visual pack 10 Aug
Louis · Build	The entire build and everything behind it — pages, features, accounts, member database, security configuration, hosting, testing and launch. Owns the backend outright.	All features working 5 Aug · Live 13 Aug
Platform team	Deployment support only. Publishes the site to its final address and keeps that pipeline working — no development, no database access, no responsibility for Academy data.	Before 13 Aug

Where this can go wrong

Named early so they can be managed, rather than discovered in the final week.

Highest The feature answers are latePhase 2 cannot start on anything that depends on an unanswered question, and there is only one developer. Every day past 27 July comes straight out of the refinement window. If answers are still missing on the day, the recommended default is adopted and written into the blueprint so the build never stops.

Highest The web address is not ready in timeProvisioning a domain and certificate through group IT can take weeks and is entirely outside our control. The request must go in on day one. Fallback: launch on the temporary address already in use and switch the domain over afterwards, with no impact on the date.

Medium Refinements arrive as a rewrite rather than a polishPhase 3 exists to improve a working site, not to redesign it. Requests that change page structure or add features at that stage go to September — otherwise the test week disappears. Delivering in two batches keeps this visible early.

Medium Compliance objects at the endA regulated brand cannot publish education material, or gate it behind a funded account, without a compliance view. Getting that agreed on 29 July, while it is still cheap to change, avoids a rewrite during the final week.

Medium Single point of failure on the buildOne person builds and runs everything. Mitigated by keeping the technology deliberately simple and by writing down how it is deployed, so someone else can take it over if needed.

Where the work stands today

The prototype is further along than a typical three-week start — the design system, both languages and the full user experience already exist and are demonstrable.

Area	Status	Remaining before launch
Public pages	Built	Apply final visuals and approved copy
Both languages	Built	Translate the new and revised copy
Design system	Built	Apply Leo & Ruby's brand refinements
Mobile & accessibility	Built	Re-test after the visual update
Membership levels	Awaiting answers	Confirm the rules, then build them
Member accounts	In build	Replace the demo login with real accounts
Course & lesson pages	Not started	Build from the confirmed course list
Hosting & domain	Waiting on IT	Temporary address live; real domain requested
Points & referrals	September	Counted from launch, displayed later
Partner dashboard	Demo only	Real data in September

Decided already — no need to reopen

We build and run the backend ourselves. Accounts, the member database and its security configuration are ours end to end. The platform team helps publish the site and nothing more.
No connection to the trading platform. The Academy stores only education data — name, email, phone, course progress and points — and the Academy password is separate from the client portal password.
Existing clients are recognised manually at first, by matching email addresses, rather than by connecting systems together.
Hosting is already live on Cloudflare, which is where the site will stay.