AMA: Zendesk Senior Director, Technology Marketing and Communications, Teresa Haun on Product Launches

This question is very similar to this other answer so I'm sharing my answer from there here too: At Zendesk, we use a launch template that includes key workstreams and teams to engage for different tiers of launches. We use two criteria to determine the tier of a launch: business impact and market impact. For business impact, we assess how much the launch benefits existing and new customers, including whether it makes a material difference in whether they select Zendesk or a competitor. For mark ...Read More

At Zendesk, we do use a launch template that includes key workstreams and teams to engage for different tiers of launches. We use two criteria to determine the tier of a launch: business impact and market impact. For business impact, we assess how much the launch benefits existing and new customers, including whether it makes a material difference in whether they select Zendesk or a competitor. For market impact, we evaluate how the launch changes our position in the market. We consider if the l ...Read More

When I think about the most successful launches my team and I have done, they all included 1) a clear go-to-market strategy with leadership and stakeholders bought in, 2) strong communication and partnership across cross-functional teams, 3) effective sales enablement, and 4) success metrics and estimates for what we expected to deliver set in advance.Having a clear go-to-market strategy that includes all the key considerations and all stakeholders aligned sets the stage for a successful launch. ...Read More

This question is very similar to this other answer so sharing my answer from there here too: At Zendesk, the vast majority of our functionality is global so almost every launch is a global launch. We determine the general approach and strategy that we think should work across all regions, but then partner with regional teams to understand how they may want to adjust specifically for their areas. Our regional teams localize pretty much everything, including campaigns and assets, so they’re determ ...Read More

I’ve heard two terms used before to describe product marketing’s role in a launch that really resonate with me and I think accurately sum up what we do. The first is “launch captain” and the second is “momentum maker” (credit to @Marcus Andrews for that one). Product marketing is the “captain” that brings all of the other cross-functional teams together to bring a launch to life. We sit in the middle of Product, Marketing and Sales and are the bridge between them to determine how we can best mar ...Read More

At Zendesk, the vast majority of our functionality is global so almost every launch is a global launch. We’ve had some very specific regional launches like GDPR, certain voice partners, and messaging channels that are primarily concentrated in select regions, but those are pretty rare. When it is one of those more rare regional launches though, we definitely rely more on our regional teams to understand the nuances and important considerations for that area. For global launches, we determine the ...Read More

I think adequate demand for a launch comes down to ensuring all of the planned activities for the launch are actually enough to deliver what’s expected and needed for the business. Sounds like you might already have top-down targets for what the business needs to deliver on that launch, so now it’s about ensuring when you roll up a bottom-up forecast from all of the tactics planned, you think you’re in a good position to deliver what’s needed. You can create a bottom-up forecast for pipeline, bo ...Read More

An iterative release can still count as a launch, just likely a small launch (in case you’re curious about the tiers we use at Zendesk to determine size, just talked about that on this question https://sharebird.com/ama/zendesk-director-of-product-marketing-teresa-haun-on-product-launches?answer=DjEBP934m2). It comes down to whether you want to go ahead and announce iterative releases as they’re ready or if you want to wait until enough are done to make a bigger announcement together. I’ve done ...Read More