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Ryane Bohm

AMA: Clari Product Marketing Leader, Ryane Bohm on Product Launches

November 3, 2022 @ 10:00AM PT

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  1. How do you launch new features in products? Plus, what are the best resources to learn product marketing from? (Could be a podcast, following some good companies, books, etc)

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    A new feature within a product would usually fall under a Tier 2 or 3 launch in my book. That means they are getting attention, but not quite everything you have up your sleeve. Tier 2 or 3 launches often include:    Website updates  Launch blog   External comms   Employee comms & employee activation  Light field enablement  Internal FAQ document An ammendment to the core product messaging & positioning, as needed Salesforce has historically done fantastic job launching new features in p ...Read More

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  2. What are your best sales enablement practices for a product launch?

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    One of the biggest pitfalls I see in product launches in underestimating enablement. Don't skimp on this, you want to make sure your customer facing teams are armed with right tools to take your product launch to the next level. A solid enablement plan will stem off these 4 questions:   1. WHO is the internal audience? (SDR, AE, SE, CSM, Segment)  2. What do they need to KNOW? (Timelines, expectations, goals, FAQs, etc.)   3. What do they need to SAY? (Messaging, discovery questions, business va ...Read More

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  3. Product of course wants a new product out in market ASAP. Do you have any tips on how you can negotiate with them to prioritize a solid launch which may mean a couple extra weeks of planning? What's a solid timeline in your opinion?

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    Lauching too soon is a major red flag internally and to the market and it is often why 50% of product launches that fail to meet business targets (McKinsey). When you are being pushed to launch too quickly (which happens all too often) I recommend helping to build understanding of what the characteristics of a successful product launch looks like:   - a company-wide initative with executive buy-in  - press-worthy moments that are decoupled from a PR  - a program that was planned well in advance ...Read More

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  4. What are common mistakes Product Marketers make when launching products?

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    Here are a few common product launch pitfalls to keep top of mind:   

    • Lack of sponsor and executive buy-in  
    • Not communicating broadly enough internally  
    • Cross-functional meetings with way too many people 
    • Over-indexing on product vs. business pains
    • Selling on features/functions, not benefits/value 
    • Messaging changes the week prior 
    • Competing outbound activations 
    • Underestimate enablement
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  5. How do you get alignment on the launch message?

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    I'm sure every marketer reading this can agree, everyone has an opinion on messaging! Getting alignment is amongst one of the hardest things we do as PMMs. Here are a few tips to get started:  Develop a roles & responsibilities framework. The most important step! You will want to document who your stakeholders and ultimate decision makers are. Make sure these roles are agreed upon and socialized broadly. Both RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) or RAPID (recommend, agree ...Read More

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  6. What template (or suite of templates) have you found to be most useful for launch planning and maintaining alignment & visibility across a variety of (very!) busy cross-functional stakeholders?

    Specifically across the variety of workstreams that result from a launch plan

    Ryane Bohm
    Ryane Bohm

    Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing | Formerly Gong, Salesforce, GE • 3y

    Product Marketing Alliance has an arsenal of amazing templates that are available for members. I have used these many times over the past few years to get me started quickly. They have everything from launch planning to messaging & positioning to sales enablement and more. Don't be shy to customize them to fit your business needs. No template is ever going to be one size fits all.

    1,110 Views
    1 request