How do you manage product launches when there is a % rollout (i.e. rolling it out to 5%, 10%, 25%, etc.)?

First, it’s important to understand why you may do a % rollout for GA launches. Typically its related to: Risk Mitigation: detect and fix potential bugs or user experience problems before they affect the entire user base. Performance and Scalability Testing: evaluate the impact on system performance and ensure stability. Then gradually increase the user base to test and ensure product scalability. Build Momentum: Create exclusivity and anticipation, generating buzz and increasing interest. Targe ...Read More

My strategy here would depend on the timeline for rollout. Are you planning to only make this available/roll out to XX% as a part of the overall strategy? Or is this an on-going rollout, where you'll start with 5/10% now, then add to 25%, then 50%, and so on? For the first use case, I'd be much more targeted in my launch materials to engage the customers that are impacted by this feature. In-product updates, lifecycle marketing, and post-sales teams like Customer Success can be powerful ways to ...Read More

I’ll need more context to give you a better answer, but the launch seems to only target existing customers. Also, I’m assuming that you’re starting small with the rollout to see if there are any critical issues without impacting a large portion of your customer base. With those assumptions in mind, I’d start by setting clear expectations and goals with your leadership team. This would include answering questions like: How are we selecting the initial users? What are the qualifications?  How are ...Read More

I work at a company where there's a specific challenge where there's an entire press ecosystem around scooping new news. Thus we tend to make announcements and run launches when a staged rollout starts. The opposite side of this equation is you dont want to announce something and then have customers asking where the product is. Thus I tend to look at it as mitigating risk. Imagine you log into Amazon and there is a new UI on the checkout page and you dont see any news around it--you might abando ...Read More