Recovering a failing registration and checkout flow on a complex membership platform.
Stabilised onboarding, payments, and role assignment by diagnosing cross-system issues and restoring reliable delivery.
Date
Nov. 25 - Jan. 26
Client
Membership organisation (platform recovery)
Category
Platform stabilisation, payments, integrations
PLACEMENT
Live production system
The Situation.
The Challenge
The failures were not caused by one bug. The issues sat across CMS configuration, payment workflows, webhooks, and third-party integrations. The platform also had overlapping plugins and unclear ownership of key decisions.
This meant:
- Diagnosing the real causes without breaking live registrations
- Clarifying the intended onboarding journey and role model
- Aligning stakeholders while fixes were being shipped
What I implemented.
- Stabilisation plan and triage Established a clear sequence: stop the bleeding, isolate root causes, then improve reliability.
- Journey and role mapping Documented the intended registration and membership states so fixes were consistent and testable.
- Payment and webhook diagnosis Traced failure points across payment events and membership creation, then corrected configuration and edge cases.
- Cross-team alignment Brought stakeholders onto one view of the problem, kept the scope tight, and set expectations on what would be fixed first.
- Regression-proofing Introduced repeatable checks so the same failures were less likely to return.
The Outcome.
Registrations became more reliable, the onboarding path became clearer, and support pressure reduced. The platform moved from reactive firefighting to controlled iteration.
Optional metrics to add later
Drop in failed registrations (percentage)
Reduction in support tickets
Increase in completed checkouts