What does the Go-to-Market process look like for a global product?

Like the answer to a previous question in this AMA, it is good to make a distinction between Go to Market process and Product Launch process, as there may be marketplace or cultural differences region-by-region that impact the long-term adoption of your product.For Product Launches, we typically do global launches with as much simultaneous translation as possible. This simultaneous activity is harder to accomplish if the launch preparation runway is short. If that happens, you translate as quick ...Read More

It is important when thinking globally that you understand the nuances of each region/country. This typically impacts key teams including: Pricing (currency, rates, overall pricing), Product (localization, languages, support, data centers), Security, Legal (contracts and terms may be different) You also need to consider the maturity of customers in those areas. I like to create a crawl, walk, run approach and enable sales in each region on how to speak to that process so that the product can alw ...Read More

The framework itself for a global product launch doesn't differ from the standard, but the strategy for rollout will very much depend on what you are selling and how your buyer likes to buy. Many companies choose to do phased rollouts or more officially break a global launch down into a collection of smaller launches. This helps de-risk the launch and gives companies a chance to test things out.  Here are some factor to keep in mind for a global rollout strategy: Consider how your buyer makes pu ...Read More

At Zendesk, the vast majority of our functionality is global so almost every launch is a global launch. We’ve had some very specific regional launches like GDPR, certain voice partners, and messaging channels that are primarily concentrated in select regions, but those are pretty rare. When it is one of those more rare regional launches though, we definitely rely more on our regional teams to understand the nuances and important considerations for that area. For global launches, we determine the ...Read More

By design, major launches are global and they rely on the general availability of the product. I would treat the regional launches as tier two or three launches. And I spend a little bit of time talking about the tiers in another question here - please check it out. Tier one is a new product or a new solution or an acquisition. You would do that once, twice, maybe three times a year. Tier two is a significant product or customer momentum… same two, three times a year. And then the Tier three is ...Read More