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 meaningf ...Read More

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 oftenti ...Read More

This is a question that comes up at every company I work with or talk to. As product teams have moved towards continuous delivery, there's a desire to just launch new features whenever they are ready. This is often not the most ideal thing for customers however and we as product marketers need to advocate for our customers! I would recommend working with your product and engineering to come up with a release cadence that makes sense for your specific customers. For companies with large enterpris ...Read More

I don’t agree with the strategy of “holding” back feature launches for a regular launch cadence. Tech moves fast and you should be constantly shipping. Launch the feature when it’s ready. However, you can make a bigger splash later with a big market moment or by bundling features together. Don’t worry too much about re-marketing your feature in this scenario. Bundling features together is a great way to…. Getting your feature in front of your customer often and in different ways can be beneficia ...Read More

I'm a big fan of bundling, especially for small/medium (Tier 2/3) launches. You could bundle into a one-off launch, but I've seen more success at just setting a regular cadence for bundled updates, which lets your customers know when to look out for the latest from your business. Either way, these bundled updates are more consumable for the market, and it elevates standalone launches to an even higher level of importance with your key constituents. With product -- I've had success raising a few ...Read More

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. ...Read More

I worked at a startup who took pride in the fact that we launched new features with every sprint. It sounded like innovation to talk about how we released X new features that year, but the reality was that customers didnt know what was a thing they needed to care about vs what was just noise. Because there's no customer that NEEDs every feature that's launched. I also worked at a large org that had three set launches a year. It felt like the magic of a specific product could easily get lost beca ...Read More

Each organization thinks about this differently, and both approaches have pros and cons. Three things to think about here: market impact, efficiency/scalability, and customer experience.  Typically, I advocate for monthly releases (unless you’re an early-stage startup). Bundling releases together can help drive: Market impact: Larger, more significant launches can create more buzz and media coverage, generating greater market awareness and excitement. Efficiency: Coordinating marketing, sales, a ...Read More

I wouldn't disrupt product's release cycle. If they want to push new capabilities and product updates during a 2- week sprint, thats great! You can even inform customers and partners about what new at a high-level (think what benefit does it provide me today).However, for external launch announcements, I'm a big fan of bundling items together to help tell a larger, more cohesive story. You need to be flexible though. There will be times where a release will have a feature that is big enough for ...Read More

From my experience, there are a couple of primary considerations when deciding whether to bundle multiple features into a single major launch or push them out individually as they become ready: Big splash vs. continuous improvement: A consolidated release can create a larger market splash. When you introduce a full set of features at once, you’re more likely to get attention from analysts, the press, and existing customers because it feels substantial. This approach also simplifies messaging—the ...Read More