AMA: Unity Vice President Product Marketing, Jon Rooney on Product Launches

The best tool for a product launch is a single system of record that captures both the strategic "why? what are the goals?" as well as the tactical "who's doing what, by when?" in one clear, easily discoverable place. This could be a tool like Airtable, Asana, Monday or something as simple and universal as a well-structured Google doc/sheet. Whatever it is, pressure-test and socialize the plan template as much as possible with stakeholders across marketing, product, sales, customer success, etc. before launch work heats up so that folks can find it and grok it on their own. Of course, over-communication in the form of meetings, emails, Slacks, etc. is critical and a plan on a page is no substitute for this kind of constant communication, but a single system of record is a load-bearing wall for any launch. Conversely, the most challenging thing you can face in a launch is the lack of a single system of record plan, either because fractured details are trapped in team silos or (be vigilant against this) there are multiple systems of record spun up by different teams with different tools that will only cause pain and confusion. As the PMM lead, you own the launch so not only are you involved from inception and responsible for driving through to the end, but you're responsible for ensuring that there's a single, definitive plan, so be prepared to stamp out any rogue competing plans.

A product launch for an acquired product vs. a product built in-house could be very different, largely dependent on how far along the acquired product is in terms of customers and brand. In many cases, the acquired product, especially in highly-technical categories, gets scooped up early by a company looking to fill a functional or technical gap (classic "buy" over "build" decision). In that case, it's unlikely that there are many customers or much revenue to account for so it should largely look and feel like and in-house launch. In the case where the acquired product has a considerable brand and customer footprint, there's a lot more to do, both operationally and from a storytelling standpoint. Operationally, there will need to be a ton of communication to existing customers of the acquired product with FAQs, next steps, any migration considerations as well as all sorts of sales ops/marketing ops back-end work (migrate CRM, SKU management, Martech stack) that the PMM lead should track closely even if you're not the responsible party to execute. On the storytelling side, you'll have to do broader framing about why and how the acquired product/company fits inside your company's portfolio (what use cases they address for which personas in which industries/verticles). Prepare for more in-depth enablement for the sales team and customer-facing roles like comms to make sure everyone can speak to the broader story.

Your product launch strategy should be created out of answering two fundamental questions: 1. "What problems are we solving for whom and why are we uniquely set up to win here?" 2. "How exactly will we capture the additional value we're creating and what does that mean to our business?" Once you have crisp, clear answers to both, you can start building a launch strategy. Some launches are about introducing a new project for a new audience, which is a completely different motion and level of effort than launching something incremental to your core audience (see the Ansoff Matrix), so vagueness around question #1 will tank your ability to understand target, goals and tactics. Having a clear answer to question #2 will help guide tactics and investments, particularly the mix between awareness and demand/lead gen. If the goal is we need leads that convert to opportunities in a managed sales motion, then the plan should focus on those activities (webinars, events, content behind form fills) whereas if the goal is to drive users to try/use in a PLG motion, then the tactics will be very different. And throughout the process, be sure to anchor on strategy vs. tactics - "how will this launch help position us to do something that we can uniquely do to win in the market?" vs. "here's a plan with a bunch of action items and dates"

I always frame a "release" as an engineering event in which new capabilities or a new product (after having been deemed "complete," passing QA, Docs fully update, etc) are either ready to be made available to customers in the form of distinct Release Candidate (RC) build or, in the case of SaaS, made available to customers on a rolling basis. Either way, there's no integrated marketing support in the form of PR, AR, social, demand gen, etc - that would be a "launch" - but PMM still needs to make sure that account teams/customer support are prepared for the changes and supporting self-service content on the web, forums and other places are updated to support that "release". A "launch" involves big marketing fanfare with coordinated PR, AR, social, demand gen, etc efforts meant to create awareness and demand in the market, often anchored to a major moment like a user conference, 3rd party event or some other galvanizing moment (like the release of a Gartner Magic Quadrant for certain enterprise categories). For SaaS products, oftentimes new capabilities get pushed when they're ready ("released"), but for the full marketing "launch" announcement are the pieces are pulled together to tell a fuller, more compelling story all at once. In both cases, PMM plays a critical part but "releases" are engineering events while "launches" are full GTM motions.

Decisions around which channels to use for a product launch should be driven by the same two fundamental questions you need to craft a launch strategy: 1. "What problems are we solving for whom and why are we uniquely set up to win here?" 2. "How exactly will we capture the additional value we're creating and what does that mean to our business?" Your channels are a function of who you want to reach with what message and what your want them to do once they receive that message. So if you're launching something that incremental that will strongly resonate with your existing customers, you can focus heavily on owned channels like your website, blog, email, social, forums - even in-product messaging. Those are cost-effective channels that build on past campaign and launch messaging that can improve overall renewal rates, expansion rates and share of wallet with your customers. If you're launching something brand new, potentially even to a new set of customers (either by persona or by industry), you can't rely on owned channels. For "new to new," you need to meet those prospects where they are, ideally with a strong tail-wind of influencers and 3rd-party validation (awards, rankings, etc). Those channels can be expensive to operate in, particularly when you're establishing a foothold but can be key to expanding the customer base, and thus the TAM, for your company.

How you should measure the success of a product launch should be driven by the same two fundamental questions you need to craft a launch strategy: 1. "What problems are we solving for whom and why are we uniquely set up to win here?" 2. "How exactly will we capture the additional value we're creating and what does that mean to our business?" Looking particularly at question #2, you have to work backwards from what success for the business ultimately looks like. Is it about generating leads and contributing pipeline for a managed sales team? Then focus on total marketing-contribtuted pipeline (MCP), Marketing-driven sales (if measurable), Return on Spend (for marketing-driven sales), Pipe-to-spend ratio (for MCP), sales enablement effectiveness (as measured by usage or demonstrating acumen across the sales org), improvement to average win rates, average deal size, and velocity/time-to-close for closed-won opportunities. These metrics should be shared across PMM and Demend Gen/Growth/Revenue Marketing. If the goal is more about driving prospects to self-service and activate/buy online, then focus on Product-led-growth metrics like sign-ups, activation and progression through usage to broader buying behavior. If the launch is more about introducing your company or a product line to a new persona or industry/vertical (or in the case of a start-up, the market overall), you can focus on awareness metrics like share-of-voice, inclusion in market research and reports, target buyer consideration and traffic/egagement metrics across your website, social and key forums/community outlets.

We've all had to launch products before they're fully baked, and while it may be nerve-racking, you can think of the exercise more of a market introduction rather than a traditional product launch. You might want to focus on building awareness and credibility through top-of-the-funnel assets like whitepapers and infographics that speak to the market landscape and the use cases that your in-development product is setting out to tackle. Setting the groundwork with any 1st or 3rd party research about what prospects might want or need plus any adjacent customer testimonials or case studies will also help lay the groundwork for your product. If you have any beta or early access customers, getting them lined up as references as soon as you go launch will help you build credibility. Depending on how not "there" the product is, it may be very difficult to create more tangible artifacts like demos, walk-through videos or even screenshots and you'll have to set expectations with stakeholders that those assets are entirely dependent on baked product. Don't over-promise or over-extend yourself and your team, be realistic and pragmatic about where the product is (and isn't) with internal stakeholders and, if relevant, external partners. If this product is meant to be sold through a managed sales team, approach enablement with the same transparency and pragmatism - make sure account teams know where the product is (and isn't) so they don't put themselves in a bad place with customers. There's always tons of self-created internal pressure to get product out the door yesterday, but the market rarely appreciates or rewards things that are half-baked. As the PMM and launch captain, you have to balance the two to enable the best possible outcome for your company.