What common mistakes should we avoid when launching new features or products in the highly competitive market?

Three big mistakes come to mind:

1. Overhyping the Wrong Thing: It’s tempting to go big on the new shiny feature without grounding it in real customer value. Instead, anchor every feature to a concrete problem it solves or outcome it drives.

2. Neglecting Enablement: Your internal teams need to be as prepared as your customers. If your sales or support teams can’t articulate the value proposition or handle objections, it doesn’t matter how flashy the launch is.

3. Failing to Close the Loop: Don’t just launch and move on. Collect feedback, gauge adoption, and be ready to iterate. Stay close to how the market is responding, and don’t be afraid to adjust your message or roadmap based on that learning.

A common mistake is not optimizing for people's limited attention. In a competitive or noisy market, you need to stand out. One effective way to do this is by attaching your product or brand to a thought leadership idea that is highly relevant to your customers and the core customer "job to be done" your product is addressing.

But more than that, you need to articulate your message in a way that causes people to sit up and pay attention. Sometimes this means getting a little bit contrarian or provocative. One way we've done that in LinkedIn Ads is by publishing thought leadership through our B2B Institute that pushes our customers to rethink how they approach to B2B advertising in surprising ways that still deliver on their primary goals or job to be done: generating quality leads, acquiring new customers and growing their business.

The Institute's thought leadership often provides a foundation of subject-matter expertise on which we build product messaging, positioning, and solutions narratives.

In sum, in a competitive market, the worst thing you can do is sound like everybody else. Standing out in a meaningful, thought-provoking, even contrarian way is often necessary.