For a new product launch that is under development, when is the right time to start planning and meeting with the different channels?

This will depend on the Go-To-Market strategy and which channels you plan to leverage. In my experience, once the roadmap is defined and you have developed your v0 GTM, that is a good time to start meeting with channel owners to seek feedback on the proposed plan and align around the channel strategy. Once your plan is vetted, then I like to partner with a program manager to develop a work back plan that will inform the right time to engage each channel owner. If your org doesn't have a program ...Read More

When you launch as quickly and regularly as we do, as soon as possible! :) But to be more descriptive - the goal is for these teams to have some visibility and control over planning for their workload, and for you to have all the resources you need for a launch. So I think it's helpful to look at it across a couple of horizons: Annual - work with product to give people a sense of the biggest launches coming for the year, at the beginning of the year. This should be something you and product lead ...Read More

Is it ever wrong to start as soon as possible?! Early in the ideation/business case phase, I try to keep it narrow. I'll tap a few members of the GTM team to help me brainstorm use cases and value proposition, which we then refine through additional research and customer validation. It's helpful to have early champions that you can pull in as you are launching -- they can help generate excitement and understanding.  If it's a really new motion for the company (e.g., the first time you're introdu ...Read More

I hate to answer with "it depends", but it does! Atlassian has ~25 cross-functional teams that I worked with as the launch came closer. Some of those teams required 4 months of lead time to make sure everything was done on time! Others came in during the last few weeks. I found that it was important to cast a wide net early on and to be curious. Your curiosity will uncover more dependencies than trying to think of every possible dependent team if your org is larger. For smaller companies, I foun ...Read More

Good question. Part of this depends on what channels and content you (and the other teams) plan to create. Try to take at least one of the longer-tail pieces of your launch, like potentially a web-based tool and then work backward to determine what the right timeframe is.   For many launches, I typically start the planning conversation with other teams in marketing and throughout the business when the product is in an early alpha. At that time we'll meet occasionally and sync on the product narr ...Read More