How do you think about the scope or deliverables for various launches?

Over the years, we’ve evolved the launch process at Zuora. When we were a smaller company, we launched products whenever they became generally available. Now that we have multiple product lines, we standardize on 2 seasonal product launches per year – Summer and Winter. Our engineering team is constantly shipping new features, but from an external communication perspective, it helps to consolidate information 2x per year for customers, analysts, and press. Each of those seasonal launches include ...Read More

I definitely recommend tiering launches by the level of potential impact and therefore the level of activities. While starting the GTM plan, you need to decide how “big” you want to go. Time, resources, and budget all come into play here when you're thinking about the activities.  Here's an example of how you can think about the tiers:  Tier 1 - A product that is strategically important to the business that we want everyone—internally and externally—talking about. Example content: Go big with a ...Read More

Great question! Yes, we have historically used a tiering system that's based on two factors: customer and business impact. These two criterion help us determine if a launch is a T1 to T3 launch.  Depending on the tier, the scope of deliverables changes quite significantly.  Here's how we break it down: T1 Launch: This launch provides a substantial financial opportunity to the business OR significantly differentiates us in the market. These launches get full integrated campaigns support as well a ...Read More

I've tried a tiering system a few times, but honestly, have never made it stick. There needs to be a relative sizing of a launch, but I don't think it's so black and white where you can say this is Tier 1 and Tier 1 gets XYZ and this is Tier 3 and Tier 3 only gets X. I think a better way to do it is starting at the top. What are your business goals and objectives. What are the narratives and the stories you want to tell. Then, what are the launches, products, activations that support those stori ...Read More

We absolutely tier our launches and we do it for 2 specific reasons: Resources and investment need to match the outcomes we expect from a launch Not every feature is news! In some cases, bundling features together will tell a more compelling and meaningful story and we are very conscious about how often we activate our customers with news Here’s how we approach tiers:  Strategic Moments: These VIP launches have executive (founder+) involvement, are tied to a major event, and get the full roster ...Read More