What data do you share with the product team after a launch to inform roadmap planning and prioritization?
It depends on if Product does roadmap planning based on acquisition and revenue levers or if they are considering new roadmap features to minimize churn, make a better product experience, or compete against competitors. Product marketing can pull data, conduct surveys and interviews, and do competitive research to inform them, depending on what data they are most likely to use. It's all about knowing your product partner and what matters to them.
To begin with, ensure that the product team is fully briefed on the activities planned throughout the launch process, covering pre-launch, launch day, and post-launch phases.
Following the launch, consider both quantitative and qualitative data.
Quantitative: Focus on quantitative data related to external activities and insights. Disregard metrics like attendance at sales enablement sessions as they don't offer significant value.
Assess the results across various planned activities, such as the number of pickups for a press release or the registrations and attendees for a webinar. Did the launch start generating new pipelines? Whenever possible, compare these quantitative metrics to historical data, identifying any noteworthy shifts, such as an increase in webinar attendance compared to previous launches.
Qualitative: Here, both internal and external data play crucial roles.
Internal: Analyze the teams' reactions during launch preparation. What questions were raised, and were there instances where the launch influenced active opportunities? Conduct interviews with a few stakeholders to collect proactive feedback.
External: Dig into the details of the quantitative metrics. For a press release, explore whether you secured an exclusive (if that was the intention). Regarding webinars, assess whether the attendees align with your target companies and roles—having only competitors show up is not beneficial.
A successful launch often involves additional positive signals: spontaneous inquiries from interested parties. Analysts reaching out to the AR team, prospects to the sales team, and customers to the Professional Services team asking to learn more about what has been launched are all indicators of success.
Regular touchpoints with the Product team, a few days and weeks after the launch, are recommended. During these conversations, present a structured summary of the collected data, accompanied by recommended next steps for the team.