AMA: Drift Senior Director of Product Marketing, Aurelia Solomon on Product Launches

You can read my answer about taking a Tiered approach in one of the other answers. If you're a lean start up, I would suggest focusing on doing just 2 Tier 1 launches a year, and sprinkle in two Tier 2s throughout the year (rather than the 3 Tier 1s 3 Tier 2s I recommend for a more mature company). In addition to quanity of launches, you can use your "Bill of Deliverables" as a lever. Bill of Deliverables are the assets you are going to create for launch - think customers facing slides, messagin ...Read More

Great question! First, I shedule a kick off meeting. In this meeting... I outline what product launch is, why we do it, and how it works at this company. I do this every time because there are always new people on your team who might not be familiar with product launch and it's important to level set.  I then outline the roles and responsibilties of being on the launch team. I ask each DRI if they will commit to these or if there is a DRI on their team they want to take their place instead.  I p ...Read More

I think there are two different thing - and both important. I think releases shouldn't be random (like daily) because your CS and Sales teams, and most importantly, your customers, can't keep up with them. If so much is coming out all the time, your customers don't know about the new stuff. And worse, your cs teams doesn't know either and then cannot answer customers questions! At Drift, we have a monthly release process. This means that we release features on the first Wednesday of every month. ...Read More

It's important to get cross-functional representation for every product launch. As product marketer, you lead the launch, and there will be more marketers on your team than other departments because they do most of the promotion (web, creative, content etc).  But for the rest, I like to get a DRI from every department: Sales, Marketing, Legal, Support, CS, Services, Operations, Enablement, Product, Eng, and Pricing & packaging (if they don't sit in PMM). It's also critical to share updates w ...Read More

We communicate product releases via a number of channels: On-demand training for sales & cs, in-app messaging for customers, live Q&A day training for sales & cs, customer email, and monthly customer newsletter. It's important to stick to a consistent communication process and release cadence so your customers and GTM teams know when to expect new innovations from your company. If releases are random, your CS and Sales teams, and most importantly, your customers, can't keep up with t ...Read More

Yes! I love this question. Betas are SO important. I think all 3 are great options. It depends what you are looking for. If you're doing a large Beta (50+ customers) I would rely more on surveys so you can get more feedback, faster -- and then hand pick a number (say 10) for deeper dive phone conversations to dig into some of their feedback.  If you're beta is smaller, I would go live conversation all the way. In-app is good too but I think with a beta you need to gently nudge/remind customers t ...Read More

I know this isn't tactical, but I would make sure to include them in the product launch kick off meeting (which happens ever before you have your entire plan built) because it helps them understand WHY you are launching what you are launching and enables them to feel part of the journey - part of the team - that will make this launch a success. Because ultimately, it is a team that makes launches happen. It can't be done alone. I know this isn't a tactic (quite yet) but I mention this step becau ...Read More