The most useful list for this CMS migration started with addresses: the homepage, the résumé, the work index and the case-study routes. These are the links someone could have bookmarked. The editor behind the site could change; those addresses still had to mean something afterward.
Give the new editor the old contract
The portfolio already had an agreement about what a page contains: an introduction, ordered sections, shared project references and framed media. The Payload export translates into that shape. Zenith still assembles the same routes and the same layout can receive the copy.
That gave me a concrete check. Save a draft caption, rebuild the local preview, and open the existing About URL. The caption should change. The frame and the rest of the page should still behave like themselves.
Check the seams visitors will touch
An address returning a page is a start. I also want to follow a work link from the menu, use the résumé download, and switch themes between two routes. A static export and a navigation animation can each pass on their own while the seam between them still shows a flash.
There is another seam on the editorial side. Imported articles are drafts until the text and assets are ready. A preview that can render them is useful; a build that can accidentally publish them is a different problem.
I like the caption test because it makes the whole migration understandable. Someone changes one line in the new editor, then opens a familiar page and sees that one line. The rest of the work exists to make that small moment dependable.