PXM Field Guide · Published 2026-09-16 · Practitioner review pending · Editorial owner: Luke Thompson
Inventory what you hold and where it is used
List the current DAM, shared drives, agency folders, and the CMS, PIM, and ecommerce systems that reference assets by link or identifier. For each source, record the file count, total size, metadata fields in use, and who owns the content. Find the embed codes and share links that other systems and partners use today. An asset that loses its link at cutover breaks a page you may not know exists.
Decide what moves, what merges, and what retires
Classify assets as active, archived, duplicate, expired, or unknown. Keep an approved exclusion list with an owner. Run duplicate detection on a sample and inspect the matches before trusting the tool on the full library. Confirm the retention rules for expired and rights-restricted assets before you delete anything, and keep a recoverable export of the source.
Map metadata, taxonomy, and permissions
Write the field-by-field mapping from old metadata to new, including controlled vocabularies and required fields. Decide which legacy values you will clean before import and which the new tool will derive. Map every role in the old system to a role in the new one and note the assets each role must not see. Test the mapping on your most restricted asset group before the full import.
Preserve rights, versions, and release dates
Carry usage rights, expiration dates, embargoes, and model or photographer releases into the destination as structured fields rather than text in a description. Decide whether to migrate the full version history or the current version plus a reference to an archive. Confirm what the destination does when a migrated asset is already expired: hidden, visible with a warning, or blocked from download.
Rehearse with a difficult sample
Pick a few thousand assets that include near-duplicates, files with no metadata, restricted assets, large video files, and assets embedded on a live page. Import them, then have an occasional user search for a named asset, an admin change a permission, and a partner open a shared link. Compare counts, metadata values, permissions, and rendered thumbnails against the source. Time each step.
Plan the cutover and the redirects
Set a content freeze, a plan to capture changes made after the first export, and the order in which connected systems switch to the new links. Decide whether legacy links will redirect, resolve through the integration, or be updated by hand. Name the person who can stop the release and the conditions that trigger a stop. Keep the old system readable until every connected destination has been checked.
Set release gates with evidence
Before go-live, require: reconciled counts by asset group, verified metadata on a sample, permissions confirmed per role, rights and expiration dates intact, connected pages rendering from new links, trained administrators, and a documented rollback. Give each gate an owner and an evidence link. Leave an unresolved gate open until someone accepts the risk in writing.
Check again after launch
Sample the first uploads, approvals, and downloads in the new system. Watch the error queue on each integration. Ask the occasional users from the rehearsal to repeat their tasks. Keep the retirement of the old system as a separate decision with its own date, and confirm you can still retrieve historical files before you remove access.
Sources and scope
Official sources checked 2026-09-15. Vendor statements establish documented scope, not completed testing. The evaluation tasks are PXM Field Guide’s proposed approach.