AMA: Adobe Director of Product Marketing, Stephen Baloglu on Release Marketing

Great question and glad to see people taking a customer-led approach to product launches. There are a few strategies I recommend here and they fall into 4 areas. Review the foundational research and insights that already exist - What you’re launching was built based on deep customer research and …ensure you’re clear on the insights that drove what you’re bringing to market in the first place. If gaps are identified, now is the time to identify and close them. It’s better late than never on the f ...Read More

Organization readiness can be measured at different altitudes…e.g. Super high level and broad: does the business have the right strategy to win? vs. tactical: are we set up for a successful product launch and meet near-term goals? And points in-between. Let’s assume the big strategy pieces are figured out and set up for success and we’re focusing on the more near-term tactical pieces of a successful launch. There are a few areas that I focus on to assess launch readiness. For all of these, the k ...Read More

Developing your team and how x-functional teams work together may seem “less pressing”, but while these things do not typically have urgent deadlines, they are extremely important. Here are a few strategies I use to effectively develop the team as well as meeting business goals. OKRs for personal development. We use OKRs to set and measure goals. Whatever goal setting/tracking model you use, make room for you and your team to add individual career goals. We typically all have a learning goal eac ...Read More

Success…you know it when you see it. Well, we all may see it a different way. So, for me, it’s all about establishing what success looks like with stakeholders and leadership (early and often), ensuring reliable measurements of success metrics are in place before launch, and taking an honest and candid approach to evaluating the launch. We use the Go-to-Market strategy document to align the team on objectives, measures of success and goals/targets. As we prep for the launch, we ensure dashboards ...Read More

“No, don’t do it! Don’t create a massive spike in traffic and run-up in sales that blows through your numbers.” said no one, ever. But really, I get it, you’re not looking for empty calories, you're building a business. Here are a few thoughts. 1. Understand what might drive a short-term spike that doesn’t carry through. Is your media spend too front-loaded? Do you not have the right product-led growth motions to create sustainable growth? Are you taking pricing action along with a product launc ...Read More