The first 90 days after PIM go-live: hypercare to first results

What should happen in the first 90 days after PIM go-live?

The first 90 days run in three phases: hypercare, stabilisation and optimisation, each with its own goal. The period decides whether the PIM becomes the trusted source or a system people work around.

The weeks above are a PIMvendors planning convention for a mid-sized implementation. Larger programmes repeat the cycle per release.

The implementation pillar describes go-live as the start of the period in which the business case is won or lost. Three workstreams run through all three phases: stabilisation of the system, adoption by users and governance of the data. This page covers stabilisation and measurement. The user adoption and governance after go-live guides cover the other two.

Prepare the 90 days before go-live. Baseline measures, the hypercare team, the support model and the day 90 review date should all be fixed in the cutover plan.

How does PIM hypercare work?

Hypercare is a period of intensive, fast-response support right after go-live, run jointly by the partner and your team. Its goal is stable channels and a clear defect picture within days.

A hypercare setup has five elements:

1. A named hypercare team: partner consultants, your PIM administrator, key stewards and an integration specialist.
2. A single channel for issues, with triage by severity.
3. A short daily stand-up during the first two weeks.
4. Monitoring of exports, imports and integration jobs.
5. Written exit criteria.

Align these levels with the partner contract before go-live.

Hypercare should end when written criteria are met. Typical criteria are critical defects closed, exports stable for an agreed period and support handover documented. As a PIMvendors estimate, hypercare for a mid-sized implementation lasts four to six weeks.

Which measures show the PIM is working?

Measure the outcomes promised in the business case, against a baseline taken at go-live. Activity measures such as logins show use and say little about value.

Report weekly during the 90 days, to the product data owner and the sponsor. Show the trend alongside the current value. A completeness figure that rises each week tells the organisation the PIM is working.

The PIM ROI guide explains how these measures link to financial outcomes. The product data quality page explains how to define completeness per channel.

How do you clean up migration leftovers?

Turn every migration leftover into a work queue with an owner and a deadline. Leftovers that sit without an owner become permanent data quality problems.

Typical leftovers after cutover:

• Products that failed validation and were migrated in draft.
• Attributes left empty because the source had no data.
• Free-text values awaiting conversion to code lists.
• Broken asset links or relations.
• Translations flagged as outdated.

Assign each queue to a steward by product domain. Set a weekly target and report progress alongside the outcome measures. Enrichment work belongs in the PIM's own workflows, where approval and quality rules apply.

Prioritise by channel impact. Products that block a channel export or a regulatory obligation come first. PPWR applies generally from 12 August 2026, so packaging attributes with gaps belong at the top of the list for affected products.

Some leftovers reveal design gaps. A queue that does not shrink, despite effort, often signals a missing attribute, a wrong validation rule or an unclear definition. Route those to the governance forum as data model change requests.

When do you decommission legacy systems and spreadsheets?

Decommission each legacy source once its data is migrated, its users work in the PIM and no channel depends on it. Leaving old sources available invites parallel maintenance.

Use a three-step sequence:

1. Set the legacy source to read-only for migrated scope.
2. Confirm no channel, report or integration still reads from it.
3. Archive the data and switch the source off after the agreed retention period.

Shadow spreadsheets need a different approach. They survive because they solve a problem the PIM does not yet solve for that user. Interview the owner of each surviving spreadsheet. The answer is usually one of three: a missing PIM feature, a missing report or a training gap. Each answer has a fix.

The Prosci ADKAR model describes the last element of individual change as Reinforcement. Retiring old tools is reinforcement in practice: it confirms that the new way of working is the only way. Communicate each decommission date in advance and keep it.

How do you plan release 2 at day 90?

Plan release 2 at the day 90 review, from a prioritised backlog and the measured outcomes of release 1. The review closes the go-live period and opens normal operations.

The day 90 review agenda:

1. Outcome measures against baseline.
2. Open defects and leftover queues.
3. Adoption by role, including surviving spreadsheets.
4. Governance routine: change requests handled, forum attendance.
5. Backlog for release 2, scored on business value and effort.
6. Budget and resources for the next period.

The product data owner chairs the review, with the sponsor, partner lead and IT attending. The output is a written plan with owners and dates.

Release 2 often adds markets, channels, supplier onboarding or AI features. Use the product data maturity model to choose the next step. Move up one level at a time, and add scope only once the basics run reliably.

Keep the release 2 scope small enough to deliver within one quarter. A short second release keeps the project team together and shows the organisation that the PIM keeps improving after go-live.