AMA: Vanta Head of Product & Brand Marketing, Sarah Scharf on Product Launches

Every organization thinks about this differently, and I’ve worked across the spectrum from a single, annual release (Android OS) to continuous release (B2C startup). So what cadence is right? If you pressed me for a single answer, I would say a quarterly release (I didn’t make this up, I just happen to agree with this post by David Sacks: https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-cadence-how-to-operate-a-saas-startup-436aa8099e8). Quarterly tends to be long enough to bundle together several meaningful product updates and develop a "through line", but regular enough to show your customers you are responding quickly to their feedback. For PMMs, it allows you to organize around a cohesive launch - whether that takes the form of an event, a “What’s new” webinar, a customer activation, or something else. But if you’re at a scaling startup, and especially one that’s focused on consumers or SMBs, you may find quarterly releases feel too slow at first. At Vanta, we’ve found success with creating a cadence of launches throughout the quarter, aiming for several mini-launches and a larger release every ~month that receives integrated marketing support. If you are grappling with this at your company, some ideas are: * Create delineation between bigger and smaller launches - ideally through a formal tiering process, but even a quick T-shirt sizing on impact is helpful * Agree to a cadence of those larger/smaller launches that matches both your product development cycle and your customers’ expectations * If you don’t know what that cadence should be… test and iterate! * Remember that pushing code ≠ a release. You can “release” things before or after they are shipped - or even re-release them.

Yes, it's important to run a different playbook for major launches versus minor ones. Rather than thinking just around "product" vs "feature", I'd recommend developing a common definition for different tiers of launches. These are roughly the tiers we use: Tier 1: Expands capabilities with a distinct, new product offering. New product SKU. Significant competitive differentiation. Tier 2: New, incremental functionality/capability that extends your offering its current target market. Competitive differentiation. Tier 3: Updated functionality/capability for an existing product. Tier 4: Release of bug fixes and minor updates to the UX. Tier 5: Functionality that is necessary (and requires resourcing), but does not have customer/partner-facing visibility. Once you've agreed upon these definitions, you can develop a bill of materials around each of them to make the launch process repeatable. 

It’s a great question. As much as you benefit from playbooks and templates, too much of the same will burn out your team and dampen your impact. I’d recommend a few things to ensure you leave some room for new ideas: * Agree to a cadence: As mentioned above, if you have a set cadence of launches, it gives you more time to plan ahead - or at least know which launches you really want to go big on versus which you are OK with a set playbook * Make your standard communications rinse and repeat: If you do a monthly customer blog post, quarterly “What’s new” webinar, etc, make sure these are as templatized as possible. You should still experiment with variables (subject line, time of day, etc) but if you find a formula that works, your customers will benefit from knowing what to expect. * Solicit ideas: We have a Slack channel at Vanta called #wacky-ideas. As you can imagine, there are a lot of ideas posted there that we don’t act on. But we do experiment with some of them! For instance, someone stumbled on #clintfromIT, a TikToker who does awesome IT and compliance videos. Because we leave a little room in our plans for experimentation, we did a really fun activation with him around some of our product launches. * Measure and assess: Measure what you can - you may be surprised what works. At the very least, make sure that you have well defined KPIs for your “rinse and repeat” activities, so you can still demonstrate success even if your experiments can't be directly measured.

Of course! And for the record (and in case my product team is reading this ::waves::) that is a very healthy and constructive tension. Coordinating launches is all about tradeoffs. How I would approach is: * Articulate the tradeoffs: Clearly lay out what PMM and other stakeholders could produce with another <x> weeks vs at the proposed launch date. Ideally, you have examples of launches that have been rushed and ones that have been done “right,” with results you can point to. Make this pre/post as clear as possible. * Understand the urgency: On the flip side, do your diligence as to why the team feels the need to launch ASAP. Is this feature addressing an issue that’s causing churn? Is the sales team begging for it? Once you understand and empathize with the urgency, you can… * Jointly create a plan: Ideally, if the tradeoffs are clear, you can reach a mutually agreeable date. But there are many other ways to find common ground. If the main concern is unblocking sales, you can enable the field to offer the product in certain instances. Or you can agree for the feature to go live on one date and the launch to happen on another (pushing code ≠ a release!). There will be certain launches you will compromise on, and vice versa. But over time, as you go through more launches together, this discussion becomes easier to navigate.

I personally feel like too much is made of the distinction between B2B and B2C. Heads of IT are people too! In either case, the messaging is paramount. As I said above, commit to “Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two.” And be able to express that in short / shorter / shortest lines of messaging As for placement, I have found B2B a bit easier than B2C. There are many more digital channels to reach people when they are staring at a screen from 9-5. That said, one of our most successful mediums for Vanta has, surprisingly, been out of home! We developed a tagline that captured the product value and user need (“Compliance that doesn’t SOC 2 much”) and saw our billboards go viral online. If you start with strong messaging, there are a lot of channels and tactics that will work, no matter who your audience is.

A rock solid messaging doc is the most indispensable tool for a product launch. I still live by the mantra that Lorraine Twohill, Google’s CMO, instills in all PMMs: “Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two.” Understanding the desires and pain of your customer is important. And understanding, in a fair amount of detail, the discrete features that make a product so special is critical. But the best PMMs are able to connect how those amazing features uniquely alleviate the specific pain points of the user. Once you have a handle on the positioning, the challenge is to translate that into a very clear messaging doc. If you can write a short / shorter / shortest version of the messaging, where all 3 capture the essence of the positioning, you've got a good messaging doc!