What are the key things to consider post-launch? What standard metrics are important to track to measure success and what teams (and at what cadence) are important to connect with post-launch?
Can really vary product to product — but I'd separately track product metrics you're able to drive and marketing channel performance. If you have the tech stack for it, ideally you can measure how much product adoption was driven your marketing efforts to keep yourself accountability and prove incrementality. For your marketing channels, you'll want to maintain a rigorous internal dashboard of engagement rates, open rates, performance metrics, etc. for all your launches, so you can develop accurate benchmarks.
I've seen this vary from top-of-funnel metrics down to MRR depending on the goal of the product. Aspects that I believe impact the KPI you ultimately choose are:
- What does this product mean for your company?
- Is it awareness of your company in the market?
- Is immediate revenue important or can it be pushed down the road?
- How well do you understand user pathways from signup to product usage?
- How well do you understand your funnel?
- Do you have historic data to base assumptions on or is this a green-field launch?
- Are you confident in the amount of traffic you'll be driving from specific channels?
- Do you have a captive audience anywhere that you can take advantage of?
You'll choose very different KPIs depending on how you answer the above questions. For the most recent launch we focued on in-product usage (MAU, engagement rate) instead of revenue. For bootstrapped, single-product companies, revenue was my KPI. For startups with money it might be signups to show growth. Understanding what marketing should do for your company will help to create impactful KPIs that don't focus on vanity metrics.
Landing is everything, but can oddly become an afterthought in the eyes of an organization. It just doesn't have the same sizzle as a launch, right? But landing is where you get the business impact and that is, after all, our goal.
"Standard" metrics are a bit challenging to identify because they really are dependent on your business - what was the goal of the launch, what can be measured, and what larger business objective does this launch ladder into?
Here are some standard metrics I've used, and why they matter:
Usage: how much is this product being used?
Revenue: how much value are we driving for the business?
Adoption: is the product resonating with a wide audience or just a few?
Sales close rate: is there a pretty clear product-market fit?
Sales cycle time: is the product addressing an urgent need, or is it a nice-to-have?
Support ticket volume and trends: is there something that is making it hard for customers to adopt the product?
Against each of these, I look at the trend lines over time and try to understand if each marketing intervention drives incremental improvements in the metrics. I often look at a month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year out but this is going to change a lot depending on how long your products typically take to adopt.
Your key stakeholders start with Product and Sales but could be as wide as your leadership team or any partners you work with to sell.
Key considerations include tracking important metrics, maintaining regular communication with relevant teams, and optimizing for adoption/impact.
Market response: Evaluate the market’s response to the launch. Monitor social media, press coverage, and industry reviews to gauge overall sentiment and public perception. If it’s negative, understand why — and create a GTM strategy to change that perception.
Customer feedback: Collect and analyze feedback from customers to understand their experiences, identify any issues, and gather suggestions for improvement. Use surveys, user interviews, and support ticket analysis to gather insights.
User adoption monitoring: Focus on user adoption and engagement. Ensure customers are utilizing the new features and derive value from the product. Provide additional training, resources, or support if needed.
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and net promoter score (NPS): Track customer satisfaction and loyalty to gauge overall product reception.
Pipeline and revenue impact: While not the sole focus, track any immediate revenue impact, including new sales, upsells, and cross-sells driven by the launch.
So, you’ve launched your shiny new product—congrats 🥂 But, as any good Product Marketing Manager knows, the journey doesn’t stop there. Launching a product is like sending your kid off to college: the "invisible work" begins after they’ve left the nest! Post-launch success hinges on continuous tracking, feedback, and collaboration.
WHO Matters: Stay closely aligned with Sales (eyes & ears on the ground), Customer Success (customer whisperers), Product (your favorite band), Marketing (your hype squad) and Analytics (your data detectives) to make sure it is all coming together as it should!
Here’s your post-launch playbook to ensure your product thrives in the wild:
Key Considerations Post-Launch
Customer Feedback Loops: Actively collect and analyze customer feedback through surveys, interviews, and social media monitoring. This helps in understanding customer satisfaction and areas for improvement. Think of it as product “aftercare”—like checking in to see how they’re liking their new toy and what tweaks might make it even better.
Product Performance: Monitor product performance to ensure it meets the expectations set during the launch. Address any bugs or issues quickly to maintain customer trust and satisfaction.
Adoption and Usage: Track how customers are adopting and using the product. Identify any barriers to adoption and address them promptly.
Market Response: Assess the market’s response to the product launch. This includes competitor reactions, market share changes, and overall industry feedback. It’s like reading the room at a party—knowing when to turn up the music or change the vibe.
Sales and Revenue: Evaluate the initial sales figures and revenue generated from the launch. Compare these against projections and adjust strategies as needed. Proof of traction is in the “proverbial pudding”!
Standard Metrics to Track Post-Launch
Customer Metrics:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Gauges customer contentment with the product.
Customer Retention Rate: Tracks the percentage of customers who continue using the product over time.
Usage Metrics:
Daily/Monthly Active Users (DAU/MAU): Indicates user engagement.
Feature Usage & Engagement: Tracks how often key features are used, providing insight into what is most valuable to customers.
Churn Rate: Measures the rate at which customers stop using the product.
Financial Metrics:
Revenue and Sales Metrics: Includes total revenue, average revenue per user (ARPU), and revenue growth.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The cost associated with acquiring a new customer.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): The predicted revenue a customer will generate over their relationship with the product.
Marketing Metrics:
Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase.
Return on Investment (ROI): Measures the profitability of marketing campaigns.
Website, In-app, Social Traffic and Engagement: Tracks visits, bounce rate, and time spent on the site, engagement with social posts.
Support Metrics:
Ticket Volume: Number of support tickets generated, indicating potential issues.
Resolution Time: The average time taken to resolve support tickets.
Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures how much effort customers need to exert to resolve issues.
To wrap up, the post-launch phase is all about staying connected, being responsive, and continuously improving. By keeping an eye on key metrics and maintaining regular touchpoints with essential teams, you ensure your product not only survives but thrives.
I will continue to beat the drum that your goals for launching a new product should be grounded in impact: Why did you build this? Open up new TAM? Improve win rates? Reduce churn? The launch is a mechanism to get visibility for your product/feature on its journey -- but it's really just an early point toward that north star goal.
The most effective launches I've been a part of have a xfunctional team that then meets regularly pre/post-launch to check in on how we're tracking against that north star. One product I launched was intended to help reduce churn, so we focused on an Adoption metric. Each month, we'd host "Product & Friends" where PMM would provide an update on customer acquisition and marketing activities (major new logos, customer stories, upcoming events/campaigns, etc.), PM would provide an update on new features, Support would share updates on net promoter and common pains in support tickets, etc. We'd usually tackle those quickly and then pick a special topic to focus on a big(ger) idea to help us move the needle on adoption more significantly.
Once a launch happens, it’s tempting to move on to the next big thing. However, the launch is really just the beginning. Post-launch, I focus on tracking whether our strategies are hitting the target goals. I keep an eye on key metrics like conversion rates, customer adoption, and revenue growth. Monitoring product usage metrics, such as active users and feature adoption rates, helps me understand how well the product meets user needs. Sales metrics such as pipeline creation, new opportunities, and cross-sell/up-sell rates show the product's market traction and our sales and customer success teams' effectiveness in articulating the value of the new offering.
Staying connected with key teams like marketing, sales, customer success, and product management is essential. After a launch, I conduct a retrospective with various stakeholders to discuss what worked and where we can improve. Around week six, I send an update on launch metrics to the leadership team. Depending on the launch size, I then set up bi-weekly or monthly meetings with the launch team to monitor key metrics, share insights, and adjust strategies as needed. The meetings ensure we remain aligned and can quickly respond to issues or opportunities that arise post-launch.
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