Question Page

The product is a month behind. Do you go ahead with the launch and launch with a product that isn't fully GA? Why or why not?

1 Answer
Ajit Ghuman
Twilio Former Director of Product Management - Pricing & Packaging, CXP | Formerly Narvar, Medallia, Helpshift, Feedzai, Reputation.comJune 30

It is a judgement call based on opportunity cost and organizational culture. 

I recall Salesforce launched its Einstein Bots at Dreamforce, 6months to a year before the product was really available. As a competitor (Helpshift) this put us on the back foot since they were a dominant player in the space and their 'launch' created enough of a buzz in the market. Many large B2B software companies tend to adopt this approach to gauge market interest, fill up their beta customer pipelines, etc. There is relatively little cost for them to pursue this approach. 

If you are a smaller company, with fewer customers and resources, a similarly sized launch could stop any other GTM launch/activity from happening and could happen at the expense of lead gen or even confusing account teams who aren't used to selling vision first. Sales teams will then fill in the gaps and you could have new customers sold on a product without a clear feature list. Eventually leading to churn and technical debt. 

1478 Views
Crafting Compelling Messaging
Thursday, February 27 • 12PM PT
Crafting Compelling Messaging
Virtual Event
Darren Chait
Hana Pinsker
Adedayo Adebiyi
+243
attendees
Top Product Marketing Mentors
Jeffrey Vocell
Jeffrey Vocell
Panorama Education Head of Product Marketing
Kevin Garcia
Kevin Garcia
Anthropic Product Marketing Leader
April Rassa
April Rassa
Clari VP, Solutions Marketing
Alissa Lydon
Alissa Lydon
Dovetail Head of Product Marketing
Marcus Andrews
Marcus Andrews
Pendo Sr. Director of Product Marketing
Leah Brite
Leah Brite
Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits
Katharine Gregorio
Katharine Gregorio
Adobe Sr Director of Product Marketing, Creative Cloud
Jackie Palmer
Jackie Palmer
ActiveCampaign VP Product Marketing
Susan "Spark" Park
Susan "Spark" Park
Pinterest Director of Product Marketing
Jane Reynolds
Jane Reynolds
Match Group Director of Product & Brand Marketing, Match Group North America