How do you decide when a product launch has ended in order to determine the success of the 'launch'?

It's critical that you define success metrics ahead of launch because they should guide every facet of your plan. You never want to get to the end and think, "Okay, let's mine some data to see how we did." That's how you end up with a bunch of vanity metrics... or numbers that aren't necessarily indicative of what the launch actually could have accomplished. For instance, maybe total traffic driven by a launch is not actually as important as the number of people who actually purchased a particul ...Read More

Good question. I typically look at 90-days post launch as the end point. Ideally all of the key teams within marketing - like product marketing, content, brand, social, demand gen, customer marketing, and others are all working together to plan integrated campaigns. There should be some natural alignment between these campaigns and your launches to carry the momentum past the 90-day mark.That being said, it’s important to be aware of what’s happening in the market. If a particular feature or pro ...Read More

"A product launch is like giving birth. You work so hard on preparing for the birth, but then you have a baby to take care of after," Yuxi Wang, PMM at Meta. The Product Launch is just the "birthing process" of the product. Establish early metrics please use the 5A Framework for GTM to determine success with your XFN team.  I consider a launch when the product is live and there are no more gates to usage. A product can be launched into BETA, and the success metrics can coincide with those expect ...Read More

A very good foundational question. This should tie back to the well-defined KPIs you set early in the go-to-market planning process, and time-gating your launch tactics against those KPIs can give you the clearest signal on success. This is especially true when the “launch” phase of work is simply the first of a multi-phase adoption and growth plan and you have deliverables that are inherently tied to “launch day” activities such as a press announcement or a launch email campaign. Once you’ve me ...Read More

Good question, since not defining the time period can lead to a fuzzy idea of impact. You can't just move the goal post out. Sorry. I typically define the product launch timeframe by the set of activities that are uniquely associated with the launch itself. Some product launches are specific to a day’s events -- more often, however, while there may be an initial set of events on a particular day (say, a launch press announcement + a customer email + a trade show event and speaker), there are a s ...Read More

Define this at the beginning! I typically find that a 3-month lookback gives the most holistic view on a launch success. Within that time period there are a few key moments:  Launch Day - what was delivered in terms of coverage, sign-ups, and customer excitement? Launch Week - how did the week wrap up in terms of key metrics?  Month 1 post-launch day - One month out what are the results in terms of adoption and use? Are there any changes that should be made to marketing programs? This is also th ...Read More

Tactically, we hold our campaign tracking open for 6 months from the launch date to track any direct inquiries a launch was responsible for as well as any opportunities it might influence in a small touch way. If my primary goals is revenue generation, I’m very interested in the direct inquiries a launch/campaign generates, which typically occurs in the first few weeks after the launch when we are making the biggest splash from a marketing perspective. Ideally, you continue marketing major produ ...Read More