AMA: Cloudflare Former Head of Product Marketing, Dave Steer on Product Launch and GTM Strategy

I love this question because it widens the aperture from product launch to go-to-market plan. The product launch is an important part of the go-to-market plan, but the launch only represents one (really important) point in time. I like to think of the product launch as the rocket booster that you need to get your message to the marketplace.Before I share my blueprint, I have an important PSA for product marketers: product availability is not the same thing as product launch. Product availability ...Read More

I answered a previous question about measuring success of a product post-launch, but it’s worth diving more deeply into KPIs for the launch itself.  The most important step here is to tie your KPIs to the marketing objectives and strategies that you are adopting. For example, if you’re launching a ‘tier 3’ product without any investment in press outreach, does it make sense to track media coverage? Nope.Let’s assume that we’re focusing on a Tier 1 product launch. Here are the KPIs I typically tr ...Read More

I’ve had my fair share of challenging product launches in my career. The Tier 2s that you desperately want to become a Tier 1. The launches that you, as a product marketer, learn about 48 hours before the launch. Those are painful.But the most difficult have been in the areas of Trust & Safety, which I believe is one of the most critical and sensitive parts of any business. Get them wrong, and corporate reputation goes down the drain. Get them right, and your product can be a significant boo ...Read More

Changing your positioning is a big deal. So much of your Go to Market plan relies on a positioning strategy that is well thought out and embraced by your company.  Whenever I need to manage a change to positioning, I start with understanding whether the real need is to change the positioning or whether the need is to tune the messaging strategy. A lot of folks confuse the two. Remember: your positioning defines how you want your target audience to think about your offering. Since shifting percep ...Read More

Identifying and prioritizing channels to reach your target audience is key to any product launch. Typically, my channel goal is to surround the audience with a repeated, salient, and consistent message. Depending on the business objective (note to product marketers: clarify the business objective of your product launch first), the goal of a launch can be different from product to product. At times, the business needs to build awareness of your product in order to drive consideration and usage -- ...Read More

Overall, you want to be looking at metrics that give you an understanding of success (e.g. adoption, revenue, word-of-mouth), inform tweaks to your messaging, and future direction of the product. These metrics may differ between B2B and B2C products, especially around Sales Enablement.Post launch, I’m tracking several metrics for my products, including:1- Adoption and usage of the product2- Revenue derived from a product 3- Customer support inquiries related to the product (this is a good source ...Read More

Creativity takes discipline, and over the years I’ve developed a few habits to keep font of creativity alive for all projects, including product launches. Here are my top three:First, I’m an avid observer (read: marketing geek) of product launches from other companies. When I see something cool, I make note of it and then refer back to my running list for inspiration when it comes time to craft a product launch strategy. I'm also an obsessive reader and have been inspired by product launches ins ...Read More

Like the answer to a previous question in this AMA, it is good to make a distinction between Go to Market process and Product Launch process, as there may be marketplace or cultural differences region-by-region that impact the long-term adoption of your product.For Product Launches, we typically do global launches with as much simultaneous translation as possible. This simultaneous activity is harder to accomplish if the launch preparation runway is short. If that happens, you translate as quick ...Read More

Good question, since not defining the time period can lead to a fuzzy idea of impact. You can't just move the goal post out. Sorry. I typically define the product launch timeframe by the set of activities that are uniquely associated with the launch itself. Some product launches are specific to a day’s events -- more often, however, while there may be an initial set of events on a particular day (say, a launch press announcement + a customer email + a trade show event and speaker), there are a s ...Read More