How do you think about bundling or 'holding' launches for a regular launch cadence vs releasing when ready?
Every organization thinks about this differently, and I’ve worked across the spectrum from a single, annual release (Android OS) to continuous release (B2C startup).
So what cadence is right? If you pressed me for a single answer, I would say a quarterly release (I didn’t make this up, I just happen to agree with this post by David Sacks: https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-cadence-how-to-operate-a-saas-startup-436aa8099e8). Quarterly tends to be long enough to bundle together several meaningful product updates and develop a "through line", but regular enough to show your customers you are responding quickly to their feedback. For PMMs, it allows you to organize around a cohesive launch - whether that takes the form of an event, a “What’s new” webinar, a customer activation, or something else.
But if you’re at a scaling startup, and especially one that’s focused on consumers or SMBs, you may find quarterly releases feel too slow at first. At Vanta, we’ve found success with creating a cadence of launches throughout the quarter, aiming for several mini-launches and a larger release every ~month that receives integrated marketing support.
If you are grappling with this at your company, some ideas are:
- Create delineation between bigger and smaller launches - ideally through a formal tiering process, but even a quick T-shirt sizing on impact is helpful
- Agree to a cadence of those larger/smaller launches that matches both your product development cycle and your customers’ expectations
- If you don’t know what that cadence should be… test and iterate!
- Remember that pushing code ≠ a release. You can “release” things before or after they are shipped - or even re-release them.
I think there are two different thing - and both important. I think releases shouldn't be random (like daily) because your CS and Sales teams, and most importantly, your customers, can't keep up with them. If so much is coming out all the time, your customers don't know about the new stuff. And worse, your cs teams doesn't know either and then cannot answer customers questions! At Drift, we have a monthly release process. This means that we release features on the first Wednesday of every month. A week of ahead of release, we train the CS & Sales teams and arm them with customer facing slides they will need. We also include in-app messaging on release day and include it in a monthly customer newsletter roundup.
Product launches, on the other hand, are meant to drive market momentum -- to built pipeline, create urgency, and deliver value. I've always implemented a Tiered launch strategy (tier 1 - market moving, tier 2 - feature add on, integration etc, and tier 3- backend update or 'monthly release'). Tiers 1 and 2 have big market impact, with goals to drive pipeline, revenue and win rates. I suggest seasonal Tier 1 launches (so 3-4 a year MAX since it's a major effort) and sprinkle in 2-3 Tier 2s throughout the year to keep building momentum between Tier 1s.
I’ve seen both approaches, but it depends on your business, selling motion, and product team culture on which approach is best for your company. I'll share some takeaways from my experiences at Asana and Gong.
At Asana, PMM and product aligned on an annual launch calendar with 3-4 major launches. Launches for smaller feature releases and improvements were coordinated between the PMM and PM. This decentralized approach allowed the PMM to be more strategic when positioning features, which oftentimes meant bundling; coordinating across PMMs to create an overarching story to target audiences. The downsides of this approach are that customers sometimes have to wait to get value from new functionality, and it relies heavily on the rapport between the PMM and PM.
At Gong, our product team is quite prolific, so we have a monthly release cadence that aligns GTM teams with product. In other words, we release features when they’re ready but only during a designated 1 week release window every month. On top of this release process, PMMs also create larger launch moments for Tier 1 and 2 features. The upsides of this approach are that customers get value right away, and Gong is perceived as a company with high product velocity. The downside of this approach is that it's challenging to pull through a common narrative when shipping 5-10 disparate features each month. This also makes it more challenging for the field to understand how to plug these new features into their sales motion.
There are tradeoffs to both, so it’s important to understand what you should optimize for, based on your business. #1 optimizes for clarity (both for customers and the field), and #2 optimizes for product velocity and faster customer value.