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AMA: Atlassian Director of Integrated Product Marketing, Ashley Faus on Product Launches

May 24 @ 10:00AM PST

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Atlassian Director of Integrated Product Marketing, Ashley Faus on Product Launches

Top Questions

How should the approach differ for product launches targeted towards large enterprises vs. ones for smaller startups in terms of timeline, activities, metrics?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

Sales/partner/channel enablement is the biggest differentiator for enterprise-focused vs. startups or SMBs during the launch. I'm coming from a software-as-a-service (SaaS) lens, which means that I have the option to include a variety of self-serve tactics that make it more scalable for smalle......Read More

2058 Views

1 request

What are different ways to set benchmark goals for launch, maximize demand generated, and continue optimizing post-launch?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

This depends on where you are in the launch cycle. I'm coming from a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) context, which generally includes the following phases for launches: alpha, beta, progressive roll-out, and Generally Available (GA). During the alpha phase, we look at metrics like requests to pa......Read More

1774 Views

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How do you track and sequence the activities leading up to a product or feature launch?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

We use Confluence, Jira Work Management, and Jira Software to track our launches. Free templates: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/templates/go-to-market https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/product-launch We create the high-level plan of activities in Confluen......Read More

1759 Views

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Marketing invariably gets the blame if the product launch doesn't hit prescribed revenue targets. How should we in product marketing set our launch revenue targets and validate our sales team's forecasts?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

Two fundamental issues with this blame game: 1) A product or feature launch and a revenue target are two different things, with different time horizons! 2) Marketing should have a seat at the table when the revenue forecasts are created. They shouldn't be "receiving" "prescribed" revenue targ......Read More

1871 Views

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What are some of the mistakes or challenges you have had with product launches in the past and how did you overcome them?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

The biggest mistakes are two sides of the same coin: over-saturating or under-saturating the market with the message at launch. Under-saturating is pretty obvious: you don't spread the message far enough and often enough. Some teams think that a tweet or two and a single newsletter promotion w......Read More

1772 Views

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If your product team works in two-week sprints, how do you balance and prioritize each launch? In other words is a "release" always a "launch" and how do you differentiate and treat each?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

For larger product marketing teams, there's a whole function around "release marketing", which aims to showcase the added value consistently. Activities might include a "weekly wrap-up" or "what's new in [product]" monthly update via social media channels, newsletters, community forums, and/or a ......Read More

1718 Views

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Which KPIs do you track considering a product launch?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

I'm approaching this question with a Software-as-a-Service lens, so this depends a lot on the type of product, launch stage (ie: alpha, beta, or Generally Available), and the level of the launch (ie: full product launch vs. feature launch or momentum "launch). In general, we want to see an upt......Read More

1836 Views

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How do you make decisions around channels to use for new product launches?

What are some of the key questions you want to answer when evaluating channels for a product launch and how do you go about finding these answers?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

The biggest key is where does your audience spend time, consume content, and engage? We use a mix of in-product notifications, emails, social media, blogs, events, and press to notify our audience about new features and products. But, we adapt the format, message, and frequency, based on th......Read More

1986 Views

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What are uncommon reasons a product launch would fail or underperform?

There are common reasons like sub-optimal messaging or pricing, but what overlooked areas in the product launch process, if not addressed, can lead to failure, and how can product marketers de-risk those situations?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

I'm coming from a software-as-a-service (SaaS) lens, but the sign-up flow + onboarding experience can make or break a launch. You can have the best messaging, the best features, and the best price... but if it's hard to sign up for and use the product? FAIL. Sign-up flows that force you to ......Read More

1749 Views

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Is there a template you follow for Product launch vs Feature launch? Also for existing and new markets.

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

I recommend a tiering system for product vs. feature launches. The tiers include criteria about the impact of the feature that's launching (or series of capabilities, in the case of a full product launch), and the activities associated with each tier. For example: Tier 1: Impact: All custome......Read More

13136 Views

2 requests

We're launching a second product at my company, and I'm struggling to get sales to prioritize selling it. How do you motivate and incentivize your sales org to prioritize this new product?

Ashley Faus

Atlassian Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio • May 24

Honestly... you compensate them. It could be a spiff to incentivize short-term priority for this product, but long-term, you have to build it into the bonus structure and overall comp targets. If they're already succeeding selling your existing product, it's going to be a challenge to ask them......Read More

1737 Views

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