In your experience, what are some of the common product launch challenges or red flags that you see?

As mentioned previously, stats from analysts and progressive GTM thought leaders such as OpenView Partners paint a grim picture for b2b product launches with 60%+ failing. Why? Well, in no particular order: 

• No set goals for your product launch. 
• Lack of adequate prep time – it takes 3-9 months on average to launch a product well, depending on the magnitude of the launch (major, minor, release), the maturity of the market, and the type of solution. Unrealistic timelines and expectations cast upon your launch captain ensure a failed launch. Evaluate launch goals against the ability of your company to execute. 
• Delays in product development or commercial readiness hurt your company's momentum while creating credibility issues for the launch team and company. If sales lose credibility in the new product or it's availability, they'll quickly turn their attention to sure-fire products to meet their quotas. Ensure product development is developing only those features that drive business outcomes. Ensure adequate allotment of time to QA. Ensure there is no room for last-minute scope creep by executives, sales, etc.  
• Lack of experienced launch personnel – not all product marketers make good launch captains the same way not all doctors make good neurosurgeons or cardiologists. There is something to be said about developing select product marketers to be specialized in product launches, i.e. your launch captains. Furthermore, adequate time defining the launch team and its charter are paramount to your launch success. 
• Lack of formal launch processes, nor a single person (launch captain) responsible for driving product launch results.
• Noncompetitive pricing or costing. 
• Launch planning decisions not founded on market evidence; lots of assumptions 
• A launch strategy based on a set of deliverables from a launch checklist versus ensuring your launch goals dictate the strategy and, consequently, your deliverables.
• Missed market opportunities 
• Lack of or inadequate sales enablement or training or content/ tools. Sales training is based on product features versus how and why your buyers buy. Further, lack of market dynamics and customer requirements education (WHY), before sharing the WHAT (product). Finally, marketing collateral that is not focused on the buyer and their unique deciding/ buying journey. 
• Failure to meet customer requirements. Further, not adequately considering your existing customers into your launch plans. 
• Product quality or supply problems 
• Poor positioning and or messaging 
• Resources being wasted! Your launch team isn't a team due to a lack of cross-functional collaboration and prioritization. (overcommunicate, and reward the team along the way) 
• Product collateral and sales tools that buyers do not use. 

At the end of the day, if you avoid these mistakes and provide the right product to the market at the right time, through the suitable routes to market, at the right price, targeting the right customer segment with a pertinent value proposition, you will achieve product launch success…. it's that simple, ha!

• Not having clear entry/exit criteria to hit milestones ahead of launch → typically results in a launch delay.
• Collaborating as a cross-functional team → Team has tension and low trust, slowing the process down and making it less fun!
• Messaging that is generic → product won’t resonate with customers and typically reduces traction. Crisp messaging that inspires is essential!
• Lack of alignment across org → Slows down the launch process because approvals don’t stick
• Product readiness → Delays launch because the product isn’t ready or the product is announced but not available.

In my experience, there are three big challenges for any given product launch:

1. Failure to get a buy-in from leadership and functional heads - Product marketing owns outcomes without owning dedicated teams.
   
   Hence a PMM need to borrow bandwidth from other functions like Demand Gen, Social, Product etc for executing a launch. In order to smooth ride this, PMMs need to provide visibility & get buy-in from functional heads on launch project early on - else risk failure.
   
   

2. Failure to align functional POCs on launch deliverables - At any given time, functions like - Product, Social, Demand-Gen, Biz-Dev etc would be working on multiple projects, out of which product launch would be one.
   
   However for PMMs, a product launch would be a top KRA.
   Without aligning functional POCs on launch deliverables & timelines, it is impossible to get a product launch into their top KRA, let alone secure their bandwidth.
   
   

3. Failure to stay on top of things during launch prep - During launch prep, PMMs often work in smaller cross-functional pods to ship deliverables.
   
   This could easily spiral into 10-20 separate chat threads with key messages, files, push-backs etc sprinkled across the chat history.
   
   In other words, if PMM doesn't devise a mechanism to stay on top of conversations, then it's very difficult to project manage a launch - with things frequently falling through the cracks.
   
   
   These are some of the red-flags that a PMM needs to solve early on during a product launch.

Assuming you have a good product-market fit, the challenges vary by the size and scope of an organization. Small companies have fewer moving parts than big companies, but the challenges are amazingly similar.

Challenge #1 - Communication

Getting everyone on the same page, using a standard set of communication tools can be a huge challenge in some organizations. It still amazes me how many companies have multiple tools that don't integrate. Your team uses Slack. My team uses MS Teams. Another team uses Confluence.

If you are spinning your wheels chasing down information across multiple platforms, you know what I mean.

Challenge #2 - Commitment

It would be best to have commitments from launch team members, your leadership team, and functional areas. Product launch is a team sport, and it requires a committed team.

Get new launch team members if they see their commitment as a part-time effort and believe they have no accountability.

Challenge #3 - No One is Driving the Bus

A product launch is a strategic, cross-functional activity, and someone has to be in the lead.

A single person is accountable for the results of every strategic initiative in your company. A product launch is no different.

Challenge #4 - No Launch Objectives

What is the why behind your product launch? I prefer to use OKRs to ensure that every launch team member knows what we're trying to do and that a purpose drives every effort.

Without a launch objective, you have no North Star. Any decision is a good decision. Scope creep is inevitable.