What's the difference between a good launch and a great launch?

I think one of the best parts of being a PMM is you get to bring a bunch of different people/teams together to work towards a common goal. I’ve probably done more launches than I dare count and manage people who’ve managed people who’ve done even more launches than me. I guess the launches that I remember most are the ones where we worked well together on. Product announcements are great moments for your company because it brings people together and it’s an exciting and celebratory milestone. I guess what makes a great launch is one where you really got people bought in on your vision, capitalized on everyone's strengths and contributions, and conquered all the peaks and valleys together. Often times, PMMs may not manage big teams. But you can have so much influence on other people and teams if you choose to rally and empower the troops. 

As teams scale and more processes are put into place to streamline go-to-market, PMMs can become overly reliant on launch playbooks. We’ve all been there — you identify the tier, fill out the launch plan, and start working through the corresponding checklist of tactics. In many cases, this will result in a smooth process and pretty good launch — after all, the playbooks are there for a reason.

But great launches come from taking a step back from the playbooks and processes to think about what that moment really needs, instead of just what’s required. Once you have your GTM plan, ask yourself what’s one thing that could be better? One thing that would make this launch more impactful? This could be anything from extra attention to detail on a narrative to taking a risk with a creative new tactic to a user-centric go-to-market strategy.

One word: retrospectives! For me, the success or failure of a single launch isn't as important as what we learn along the way. However, in every company I have been at this has been the hardest thing to implement consistently - especially in high-growth organizations where it feels like you are sprinting from one project to the next and don't have time to look backward. But make it a priority to sit down with all of the stakeholders from the launch (preferably as one group), and take the time to talk through how they thought it went. A good framework I learned for guiding this discussion is answering three key questions:

• What should we start doing?
• What should we stop doing?
• What should we continue doing?

The more you can bake this into the launch process, the more you set yourself up for even more success in future launches, and not just from a process perspective. Taking the time to have these conversations builds trust with your cross-functional partners, and makes them feel like part of the process. This results in stronger partnerships moving forward, which is what launching is all about!

I think what distinguishes great from good is how purposeful the launch was, including these aspects:

• Were there set objectives for the campaign or product?
• How does the initiative help the company reach the right customers or win the market?
• Were stakeholders and collaborators brought in to understand the "why" and how it impacts or benefits them?
• Are there processes for measuring success and doing reflections/post-mortems?

If marketers spend time understanding the why and setting up mechanisms for success, then launches become less about "pushing widgets" and more about planning and actioning the plan to win and succeed, which should result in impactful, value-driven launches for customers/end-users!