Leading a Successful Product Launch
Your idea has finally taken the shape. You have spent so much time and effort to see this day when your product is ready to rule the world. Now is the time to introduce this product to the market, create buzz, gain traction and earn some real money out of it.
In this article, we will discuss the various phases and activities that one may consider while introducing a new product to the market. Product launch is as important as designing and developing a new Product. More often than not, it is a continuous process rather than a discrete event. A successful product launch often requires a meticulous planning, solid preparation and sound collaboration across the various part of the organization.
Launch Design
Launch design often starts well before the actual launch. A product launch typically requires the involvement of various stakeholders — Product, R&D, Design, Marketing, Sales, and of course the Executive team. Thus, creating alignment among various stakeholders is one of the key challenges of the person leading the launch. A successful product launch needs alignment on the following parameters -
- Product — Value proposition, strength, weakness, competitive advantage
- Launch goals — More users, profitability, Revenue, market share?
- Target market — country, location, segment etc.
- Competitive landscape
- User type — determine the target user(s), for example — in the marketplace product, both buyer and sellers are your users
- MVP or full product — MVP or full product
- Positioning and Messaging
- Distribution — Channels
- Rollout — Consider big bang launches (like google events), invite-only Beta, controlled introduction, PR, or blogs.
- Buzz — How will you create the Buzz around the product — digital ad, Local cafe signup, Facebook groups are some of the ideas.
- Partnership — Will there be any partners be involved?
- Risks — Any risk such as — privacy issue?
Launch assets/activities
Every product launch is different — involves different product, market, users, landscape, and competition. Thus, the assets and activities always vary depending on the context. Still, the following are some examples of launch assets and activities one may consider. Primarily, all launch activities can be divided into 3 different phases -
Pre-launch
- Website Update — Landing pages
- Prospect discovery interviews
- Support documentation
- Sample video/images
- Blog post
- Social media contents
- Ads
- Email list building
- Campaigns(email, Google Adwords, Adsense)
- Demo scripts
- Distribution review needs
- Internal Product FAQ
- Support team training material
- Sales team training material
- Datasheets
- Blogs
- Prospect Newsletter
- Media/analyst relations
- Message testing
During-launch
- Lead generation program
- Demo
- Press release
- Events
- Media interviews
Post-launch
- Case studies
- Customer references
- Customer interviews
- Analyst programs
- Retention/renewal programs
- Customer advisory boards
Launch Milestone
Product launch requires a series of activities to perform. Set milestones and establish a firm production schedule and new product launch process. For example:
Creating accountability by adhering to a schedule helps keep your costs in check. Timing is super important. It can heavily influence the success of the launch. For example — Timing a launch around a trade show or other event can help to generate buzz and can serve as a terrific jump-start for the marketing campaign. Making sure key team members are available during the launch is absolutely crucial for troubleshooting unexpected system glitches and hiccoughs.
Execute — Measure — Learn
Just like product success is all about continuously iterating the product features till the product-market fit is achieved, launch success also requires executing, measuring and learning about the customers need and fine-tuning the Go to market plans. Launch planning is a human activity and often suffers from various assumptions and biases. Creating and measuring metrics around various launch activities often goes a long way in making a product launch successful.
For example, you want to test the messaging and positioning of the product, testing it with real users and tweaking them based on user feedback is recommended before doing the actual launch.
Communicate — Communicate — Communicate
Last but not the least, in fact, the most important one — Communication. Product launch often demands a long chain of activities involving various stakeholders both internal and external to the organization. Keeping them aligned to the launch goals and generating outcome requires exceptional communication, leadership and strong will.