AMA: Appcues VP Marketing, Eric Keating on Post Product Launch Momentum

Great question. First and foremost, you've got to set clear expectations up front (for yourself and for the organization) that launch day is not the finish line. Far from it. Most people put so much emphasis and pressure on the initial market launch. In many ways, it's just the beginning. 1. Goal setting. Go ahead and set goals for the initial launch, ie announcement reach, leads, etc. But not before you set longer-term adoption and revenue goals. If you expect the launch to drive revenue growth (ie expansion), start there and map out a baseline funnel (revenue > adoption > awareness). Show how adoption targets map to revenue targets. If not, start with feature adoption targets. In either case, orient your organization's expectations around adoption. How many customers should be using this feature a month post-launch? A quarter post-launch? date? How often should they be using it? Orienting around post-launch adoption makes it clear that launch day is not the end nor the goal. Launch day should generate the awareness that ultimately helps you drive the desired usage patterns and adoption. 2. Segmentation and personalization. Maybe the value of your new feature is a bit different for one customer segment vs another. Or some customers will have access to it immediately while others must pay for it. No matter your situation, be sure to segment and personalize your customer communication throughout each phase of the launch. Post-launch, some customers will start using the feature and love it, others will dip their toes and never return, and others wont give it any time or attention. I don't need to explain why each of these segments deserves a different message/call-to-action. Lean into product usage data here. 3. User engagement and community. At Appcues, we actively encourage users who have seen success with the new feature to share their stories with us and their peers on our Customer Stories hub. This not only provides real-world proof of the benefits of the new feature but also stimulates discussions and ideas within the community about different use cases for it. Beta users are usually great candidates for this as they've been using the feature longer and can likely provide the earliest success stories.

Start with a framework that uses attributes and adoption as the two axes. On the attribute axis, start with whichever attributes are most relevant to your business or specific launch, ie plan tier, company size, etc. On the adoption axis, use product usage data to group users, ie power users, sporadic users, inactive users. Each of these groups may see different values in the new feature based on what type of customer they are and how they actually use the feature/product. It could look something like this (9 different segments based on plan tier and usage patterns): Inactive Sporadic Power Good 1 2 3 Better 4 5 6 Best 7 8 9 Once segmentation is clear, craft personalized messages that cater to the needs and current adoption stage of each segment. For power users, highlight advanced capabilities of the new feature and how it integrates with their existing workflows. For sporadic users, focus on ease of use and immediate benefits that could simplify their tasks. Inactive users might need to see the big picture first, so emphasize the transformative aspects of the feature and how it could fundamentally improve their experience. How messages may differ based on plan tier (or any other attribute) will be fairly unique to your business. For example, if customers on your Good tier must upgrade to access the feature, the message to them should be quite different than the message to customers who get the new feature for free on your Better tier. Evolve and adapt the message over time. As users progress in their adoption journey, the messaging needs to evolve. Initially, you might want to focus on awareness and educational content. As users start experimenting with the feature, shift towards optimization and best practices. For those who've most fully adopted the feature, share more sophisticated use cases and tips.

Orient yourself and every other stakeholder to usage and adoption goals. Adoption takes time. When revenue targets are involved, adoption rates can and should serve as a leading indicator of success. How many or what percent of customers have viewed the feature? Actually meaningfully engaged with it? Have used it more than one time? How you set the adoption goal will be unique to your product and objectives. I'd also encourage you set these goals on a customer segment level vs the entire customer base. For example, if you're giving the feature away to Enterprise customers but charging an add-on fee for customers on your entry-level product, you should set the adoption goal for that latter group lower than the former. I'd also strongly encourage you engage customers who do and don't adopt the new feature to learn why / why not, then improve. For example, ask users who viewed the feature once but haven't revisited why that was the case. Was the value prop not compelling? Was it hard to understand? Did they just forget about it? Use that information to optimize your communications and even the feature itself.

It's all about segmentation. In another answer here, I suggested a dual-axis approach to segmentation (attributes x adoption). On the attribute axis, start with whichever attributes are most relevant to your business or specific launch, ie plan tier, company size, etc. On the adoption axis, use product usage data to group users, ie power users, sporadic users, inactive users. Each of these groups may see different values in the new feature based on what type of customer they are and how they actually use the feature/product. It could look something like this (9 different segments based on plan tier and usage patterns): Inactive Sporadic Power Good 1 2 3 Better 4 5 6 Best 7 8 9 Think: What message, content, or call-to-action will resonate best with an inactive user subscribed to our entry-level Good plan tier? What message, content, or call-to-action will resonate best with a power user on our Best plan tier? If a customer is already a power user of your new feature, they don't need more education. Go ahead and encourage them to use other valuable features that they may have overlooked. Better yet, ask them to share a success story with the new feature. If a customer has been inactive and your goal is to get them to use this new feature, perhaps showcasing other customers' successes with the feature will get them to take the leap and log in to check it out. A sporadic usage customer may just need more education. They're aware of it. They've used it. But they haven't fully adopted. Why? Perhaps they don't see the full value or are still struggling to understand how to use it.

Totally depends on the organization. I've seen it owned by the product manager, the product marketer, growth lead, etc. I'm stating the obvious here, but at some level, every function in the organization has a very important role to play. While every goaled initiative needs an explicit owner, I strongly encourage you and your org to declare and report on the adoption goal at the company-level. It will help drive the right mindset. My personal take: 1. Product marketing is best positioned to own and be accountable for usage and adoption of the product holistically. Product marketers have the best view of how it all fits together and the most direct influence over how the entire customer experience (website to product to comms) fits together. 2. Product managers should be accountable usage and adoption of the features / parts of the product they manage. After a launch, the PM should be using feedback (usage data + voice of customer) to continue improving the feature and the value it delivers over time.