AMA: Attentive Director of Product Marketing, Candice Sparks on Product Launches

I use a tiered framework that defines the different tactics and strategies deployed for each type of launch. I first start off by defining the type of tier by whether its a: new product/service (differentiator or evolving our narrative) new feature (getting us to competitive parity) updated feature internal update Then based on the above I will outline the timing required for this type of launch. It could be anywhere from 8+ weeks to 1 week. Here's where you will include all your launch tactics ...Read More

Impact means something different for every launch and these KPIs/success criteria should be defined in your product launch brief. For example, does impact mean customer adoption, customer satisfaction, press coverage, etc. At a high-level there are a few tactics you can deploy when planning for the greatest impact: Bundling of features: Is there an opportunity to hold back a release of a product to bundle with several other new features that allows you create a bigger story and launch a more com ...Read More

For a new product or feature I always start out with a simple messaging framework (there are a ton of great ones out there for you to leverage)! At the very least, your product messaging framework should include your value proposition, target audience, and a statement about what differentiates you from the competition. To dive deeper into the differentiation, I always pick 3 market trends and 3 pain points our target buyer has and then describe how our product uniquely solves these pain points o ...Read More

Here are some of the core steps I'll take leading up to a product launch. Depending on the type of launch these may be more intensive or unnecessary. Create a pre-launch brief and set up weekly/bi-weekly meetings Define your stakeholders using RAPID (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide) framework Complete your messaging/positioning framework and get stakeholder feedback Test your messaging with your beta customers or a customer advisory board Outline your marketing program to support your l ...Read More

This is entirely dependent on the tier level of your product launch. How you treat a tier 1 launch vs a small feature update will ultimately change how you approach your post-launch needs. For any product launch a few key activities I include in post-launch are: Set up a post-mortem meeting to discuss what went well pre-launch and during launch Analyze and report on your key metrics you outlined as important during your pre-launch phase (product usage, CSAT, attach rate, etc.) Identify any oppor ...Read More

That is something I think every PMM team struggles with! From an internal perspective, one thing that has really helped with this is having a tiger team of cross-functional leaders (PMM, PM, PMO, Eng, Sales) that meets bi-weekly to discuss roadmap items and any GTM launch dependencies. We use Jira to track any date changes and can see how often we're missing dates. I always want to make sure that PMM is not the cause of missing a launch date so I will work to ensure our content and comms are rea ...Read More