How do you measure the success of a product launch, and what key performance indicators (KPIs) do you track?

Best case, I partner with the product team to define the core KPI(s) for a product launch. Often product adoption is the goal of the launch, but sometimes a product is launched with other intentions like decreasing churn or increasing revenue through other product/feature adoption. Depending on the nature of the product, KPIs may include new signups for free trials, paid upgrades, add-on purchases/total value, NPS, or active users of the new product that was launched.

I also like to measure KPIs across marketing activities associated with the product launch in order to continuously improve. This can include email engagement, advertisement and social impressions, landing page traffic and blog post views etc. It's helpful to gather and benchmark these metrics to determine the most successful activation activities driving the core KPI(s) that should be considered for future launches with the same/similar core KPI(s) and target buyer or user.

Building on defining a successful product launch, measurement is a key factor in figuring out whether the launch is successful and what potential pivots you may need to make. The success of a product launch is typically measured by how well it meets business objectives, customer needs, and market expectations. As an example, for a new mobile app launch, KPIs could include daily active users (DAU), app downloads, retention rate at 7, 30, and 90 days, and user ratings in app stores. 

KPIs vary depending on the business goals but often include:

• New Customer Growth: How many customers are using the product within a set period. Track metrics like the number of sign-ups and activations.

• Revenue Growth: Measure things like immediate sales (if applicable), subscription growth, or increases in average order value.

• Engagement: Track things like DAU, WAU, or MAU, depending on your business. Partner with analytics teams to understand how your launch affects these key metrics.

• Churn Rate: If the product affects current users (e.g., an upgrade), monitor how many users drop off or unsubscribe.

• Market Growth: Track how your company is performing relative to competitors. You could look at how you rank and how you’re moving on Apple and Play stores, as an example.

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Do a pre/post survey to understand customer satisfaction post-launch and understand if they would recommend the product. You could also run an in-product 1 question survey to gauge how people like the new feature.

One of the things we can do as product marketers to elevate the role we contribute to the organization is to orchestrate goaling across all dimensions of a product or program launch.

For example - instead of thinking only about the unique KPIs that you may be driving as a PMM, what is the total set of outcomes and KPIs that must be monitored to determine the success of a launch (for example)? Are these outcomes and KPIs connected? Are the right directly responsible individuals defined and coordinated for each outcome and KPI? Are there outcomes or KPIs that are missing resources - to deliver, monitor, or both?

Tactically, these KPIs can range from:

• Public perception (often comms, brand, marcom tactics)

• Product trial (often marketing and product tactics)

• Product adoption/engagement (often PMM and product tactics)

• Product retention (often PMM and product tactics)

• Product revenue generation (often Sales, PMM, marketing, and product tactics)

• Product love and fandom (often PMM, marketing, product tactics)