AMA: Shopify Head of Retail Product Marketing - Acquisition, Courtney Craig on Product Launches

* Intercom - I love their product! You can create announcements on the bottom right of your UI, or as large nearly full screen overlays... but it's not intrusive and looks separate from product notifications. * A guided tour using an external tool like WalkMe.... or develop something similar internally * Butter bars within the UI that sit at the very top of the screen and hyperlink text that goes to a blog post * This one is cheating because it's not technically the UI, but create a personalized log in screen that has a place for new feature launches.

Looking back, the most successful launches I've done have the following elements: - Messaging/concept research, conducted EARLY on, while the product is still being developed or early access/beta. Conducting this research when product is still in development will ensure a strong go-to-market message, so you aren't guessing the what is the best value prop, reasons to believe, or even features to lead with in your launch. Early testing can also tell you what features your market cares most about, and your product team can use this information to re-arrange what they release, and in what order. It can also inform packaging.

This is always a tough one, depending on how PMM has been historically viewed within the organization, and how experienced the Product team is at working with PMMs. Many times they just don't have experience working with strategic PMMs, and we need to show them what that looks like. Here are some ideas on how to tackle this: * Get involved EARLY in the product development process and bring insights to help shape the roadmap strategy. When PMs are just starting to think about new features/how to add value to the product, PMM should be right there with them. PMM should bring competitive insights, market insights, and customer feedback to the table, to inform what should/shouldn't be added to the product. PMM can also be the best function to help Product plan their launches at the right time in the market, or package them so they will provide enough value to make a big splash. * Typically PMM owns some core functions beyond product/feature launches, like Pricing & Packaging, Research, Competitive Intelligence, and Sales Enablement. Adding a lot of value in these other categories will ensure the respect of the company. * PMM should shape the GTM strategy beyond feature launches. Meaning, each year/half/or quarter, you are providing go-to-market teams with the insights and foundations they need to create their campaigns, creative, sales motions, and experiments. This includes defining what new audiences the company should go after, introducing new messaging and value propositions, new target industries, pricing plans, experimentation opportunities, and topics for content. * PMM should always be looking forward in the market, beyond what's planned on the roadmap. Develop a 1, 3, or even 5 year positioning plan for your product, leveraging the same insights I mentioned above. What problems should your Product solve in the future? How will this be different than competitor offerings? How will the value proposition evolve over time? What is the longer term vision, and how will this match market need? Circulate this positioning plan with Product and other cross-functional teams, so you're all aligned to the same market mission.

Typically, both! If the feature is big enough to make a product stand out in the market (and isn't table stakes), then I typically will find a way to promote it to prospects, or wait until there are enough features that can be grouped together to create a larger marketing campaign. I usually prioritize measurements for success in the following order: * Existing customer adoption - usage of the feature over a period of time, or to a achieve a specific milestone. * New customer adoption - engagement, conversion, sign-up/sales opportunity created or even converted to paid as a result of discovering the feature.

Two things: 1. Always be getting inspiration from other brands... I have a coworker who likes to look to brands like McDonalds and Nike, and it always inspires new ideas. 2. Take a step away from your work, clear your head, and come back to it with fresh eyes. And ask yourself - is there a way to make this fun? What would a kid do to promote this? 3. Stay on top on new marketing trends, tools, tactics by following blogs/newsletters/communities like Marketing Brew, Sharebird and PMA.

* First of all, if it's really dull and doesn't add value - don't market it! It's ok to not market every single feature launch. Develop a tiering system or criteria for when you put effort into marketing a feature launch. You don't want to burn out your audience on features that are small. Save a collection of small features for a larger launch centered around a common theme at a later date. * If it's a developer-facing product/feature - hack days or dev workshops! * If it's a feature that's hard to explain the value because it's super technical, find an exciting use case that illustrates the feature well and develop a customer story or video around that use case. You can do this by letting the feature stay in early access or beta for awhile, getting a few customers to adopt it first, then document their case. * Sometimes it's not about the feature, it's about the larger value it unlocks. Interview beta customers and splice together a testimonial video that lets the customer do the talking.