Problem
Tackling a mountain of tech debt
Arc'teryx had been wanting to run a web performance project for a number of years, but it kept getting delayed. There were issues in their backlog that they hoped to get to, but they didn't have the in-house expertise to do site speed justice. They didn’t know how fast they needed to be, but knew they weren't meeting the same exceptional performance standards they put into their apparel and products.
Approach
Charting a path to success
Arc'teryx initially partnered with SpeedSense on a collaborative 90-day Site Speed Sprint. This began with understanding how users were interacting with the website. This data showed us which pages were loading slowly and where users were abandoning ship.
They also needed a clear picture of their website from a competitive standpoint. How did they stack up against other apparel retailers in terms of speed? Where were some areas where they could make improvements?
Finally, they needed to understand Google's perspective of their site speed. Core Web Vitals data helped identify which pages were dragging down their performance scores. With our help, they were able to zero in on which areas of the user journey needed the most attention.
Solution
Finding peak collaboration
Throughout the project, we provided Arc’teryx with a weekly list of action items to execute in order to improve website performance. This included implementing changes to their website architecture, website design, and content. We set up site speed monitoring to validate the changes in their staging environment and track their gains in the wild against their competitors. We continued to coach the Arc'teryx development team on a weekly basis to scope out further opportunities for improvement and help them build a business case for web performance.
