How do you create your product launch strategy?

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 create my product launch strategy through a six-step process, which is outlined in my attached template. Over the years, I've found that this process ensures a comprehensive approach to product launches, while still maintaining flexibility to accommodate the specific needs of a launch:

1. Plan: This initial stage focuses on setting the strategy and aligning with key stakeholders. I define the:

   • Target audience

   • Primary and secondary goals

   • Success metrics

   • Value proposition

   • Marquee products or features

   • Naming

   • Overall channel strategy based on my launch goals and brainstorms with channel partners

2. Kickoff: Here, I engage marketing channel and regional teams to determine specific tactics and creative needs. I discuss the:

   • Customer journey

   • Required assets and content

   • New activations to test

   • Targeting criteria across channels

3. Execute: During this phase, I partner closely with creative and other marketing channel teams to bring the plan to life. Key considerations include:

   • Ensuring all channel teams understand my requirements and timing

   • Adapting messaging for different regions

   • Localizing assets

4. Preview: This stage involves preparing Revenue teams and engaging analysts. I focus on:

   • Distribution of enablement materials

   • Conducting analyst inquiries

   • Building a plan to drive internal momentum (as PMMs, we need to market both externally and internally!)

5. Finalize: As I approach the launch, I obtain final sign-offs and prepare for global release. Key activities include:

   • Getting assets approved by Legal

   • Asset handoff for localization

6. Launch: In the final stage, I make last-minute preparations and plan for post-launch activities:

   • Setting up communication channels for launch day

   • Planning team celebrations

   • Scheduling retros to improve our launch processes

   • Preparing to share results with leadership at 30, 60, and 90 days

First, you have to ask yourself a few questions: 

• How often are we launching significant new or improved products? 
• Who are the key stakeholders during launches? 
• What are the key problems with the way launches are handled now? 
• What channels are at our disposal for launches?

From there, you can start to design a strategy that works for your organization. 

In general, I recommend tiered launches. You'd ideally have some sort of matrix that aligns the organization around the answer to the question: "What is the impact we think this new/improved thing will have on the organization?" For instance, will it drive new business? Win competitive deals? Retain more customers? Drive expansion? 

Depending on how much value something will drive, you can give it a priority. I usually give something a P1, P2 or P3. If something is a priority 1 launch, we'll roll out the red carpet, pull out all of the stops and do everything we can to get as much adoption as possible. The exact things you'll do will change depending on your resources, as will how long it will take you to execute on a launch. P2 launches are great and we want people to know about them, but there's not as much "juice" per se. P3 is usually reserved for updates, feature launches, etc. and mostly is for letting existing customers know that this new/improved thing exists.

That leads to the last step – which is articulating how much time is necessary for each launch and what needs to happen along the way. You can do this in a tool like Asana or Monday, or you can just use a spreadsheet. This step is incredibly important in order to drive alignment, get involvment from all necessary parties and make sure that you're generally launching things in a reliable timeframe. I like to do this in bi-weekly chunks, so it might be like: "In the next two weeks we'll write new landing page copy, provide the sales sheet copy to the creative team and schedule a sales training. In the following two weeks we'll...." and so on. 

The great thing about this process is that it serves to not only improve the way you launch things, but it also drives better cross-functional alignment, which will serve product marketers well in all other aspects of the job.