Product Launches

I really like the story brand framework by Donald Miller. The narrative structure puts the customer as the hero of the story and your solution as the guide to their problem. The book also talks about picking a fight for your product with a focus on vilifying the issues your customers are having. This framework can be applied across stakeholders and performs very well from pitch decks to landing page copy. 

The first step is defining the customer journey and making sure your key functiona teams understand that journey. Then, recognizing that there may be stop gaps that need to be implemented to ensure customers can take advantage of the feature. What needs to happen on the delivery side of the house so CS and technical teams are enabled? How can we over communicate and document docs and materials for our teams and customers? What kinds of enablement efforts do we need to account for to make sure customers understand the benefits?

Welcome to the fun world of Enablement! And there are internal + external aspects of this. * External * Message x Value & benefits: What's in it for your users? Migration is a pain in the ass. Before you get to the logistics, you have to sell them on the why * Transition plan: What's the step-by-step guide? Is it one size fits all, or does it require different approaches for different types of users? These need to be documented and clearly laid out.  * Timing & cadence: Give your customers enough time to make the changes. I'll leave the communicat...

It certainly depends on the launch tier along with other market factors/customer dimensions, but typically I am looking at the data to inform next steps. Did we hit our product usage target? Is the narrative landing in sales calls (listening to gong recordings)? Is the pitch deck working (checking deal velocity in SFDC)? I am continually tweaking to ensure we are landing in a place of impact and not stagnation. Aside from this, the mission critical post-launch activity should be - the RETROSPECTIVE! Get your GTM teams together to chat about what you should "start, stop, continue" so you're ...

I love this question.  Let me start with an example. What is a demo? Is it a demonstration of a product's features and capabilities? or Is it an excuse to get on a call with a prosepct, talk about the product but spend most of call doing discovery and tailoring the features exactly to what the prospect wants?  It's both and more often the latter.  Similarly, a product roadmap maybe be helpful for the product team to stick to a schedule. But that doesn't have to be the public facing product roadmap.  The job of the public product roadmap is to paint a vision of your company's lea...

I like the idea and intent behind increasing transparency and visibility, as well as communications efficiency—but the answer to this question totally depends on your market and customers.  There may be really valid strategic reasons (you may be in a hyper-competitive market, for example, where your competitors can gain an edge looking at your roadmap) for not wanting to publish a roadmap. 

I’m generally in favor of being transparent with customers when it comes to the product roadmap. It can be a great opportunity for Account Managers to engage with customers ahead of renewals and expansion conversations. There are a few things to keep in mind when doing so: * Include a safe harbor. If you’re going to share future plans, it’s important that you include a safe harbor stating that nothing shared is 100% certain and that your product plans may change. Your friends in legal will thank you :) * No more than 6 months ahead. We all know that product roadmaps change. A ...

I dont really have a strong "pro" for why to do this, so I personally wouldnt put too much time and effort into it. But it may make sense for your business challenges. I think something to be aware of is that when you document your roadmap publicly, it puts more pressure to ensure dates dont slip. If you're trying to brand yourself as an innovator by having all these new ideas, it may help, but you run the risk of causing customer to delay their purchase until a later date until a feature they want is live--which doesnt really matter if you have a freemium GTM; so I guess that's how I'd loo...

This is a good question and I have seen this especially happen when the market analysis, customer problem identification and prioritization is not done correctly. Product launch won't be successful because how will you know if you have messaged and positioned the product correctly - aka solving the right problem with a unique differentiated offer / solution.  While it is really a "product management" problem, product marketing can be a big help here if you can step in and offer to help. Again the PM team or even the senior leadership needs to be open to your helping. IF you feel they are...

There are 2 major questions here - one has to do with priorities changing (e.g. no strategy) and the other is indirectly about out of control roadmap timelines - I'll answer both below!  Priorities changing Major Roadmap and priority changes are often a symptom of a weak strategy. It’s common for roadmap dates to slip, especially if they’re more than 3 mos out, but if you’re seeing wild changes with dates and it seems like there is no North Star, there is probably a lack of strategy. Start with the product team, ask what your strategy is - start with questions like: is this for new ...

As the CMO of the product, product marketing should take the lead and make sure the teams are aligned. This may require you to set up a meeting with Product Management (and perhaps other leaders across the busienss) to discuss the shifting priorities and align on a path forward. Map out the impact on the business, clearly articulate the challenges and come into the meeting with proposed alternatives and suggestions to spur the conversation.

I think PMM is the perfect function to initiate this because you sit at the intersection of both teams. What my team usually does is work with Product to inform the product roadmap, then once that is settled (or in parallel) we develop a product marketing roadmap for the quarter which includes all of the product releases we will support, timing, and priority level.  As part of this we consider: - Priority level (not every release needs to get marketing support) - What level of marketing support is needed (simple feature launch, campaign, no support, etc.) - Can certain features can be...

While the impact of shifts in company strategy and product roadmaps can materialize in similar ways day-to-day, the altitude at which they need to be addressed differs. In both cases, however, you’ll need to understand what’s at the root of the change. Most companies I’ve worked at set long-term goals (think 10+ year vision) and short term goals (think focus for the next 1-3 years). Things can shift more regularly on that shorter time horizon, as teams take a flexible approach to tactics used to deliver on their goals. As long as the company vision remains as a north star, I’d expect the da...

My advice on this one is that there's no real overstepping of your role--as long as you're respectful of others (both people and functions) and act in the interest of the company. If you're doing both of those things, then act like an owner and do what you think is necessary to help the business move forward. PMMs tend to have a vantage point not always offorded to other teams, given the nature of our role is to be so higly cross functional. So if youre seeing silo'd work and its negatively impacting launches and you arent able to deliver meaningful results, raise your concerns.  In thes...

Getting everyone on board after you're done is a lot harder if they haven't been involved from the start. Give the GTM plan an iterative process treatment. Start with a rough draft and shop it around. Get people to buy in on it. Ask for feedback and ask questions so they feel involved. Make suggested changes if it makes sense—and if it doesn't, work to reach a consensus.  Once you've gone through a couple of rounds with the primary stakeholders, the GTM plan should be fairly polished. Everyone will believe they had a hand in it and it's easier to work out minor kinks before implementation. 

This question is essentially "how to lead effectively without authority" - or in other words, how to lead your peers and others who aren't necessarily in your organization and/or who don't report to you directly.  Start early - before you plan on rolling out your new launch approach.  Talk with leaders and get their buy-in and then set up recurring meetings with different stakeholders on the Marketing teams, and come prepared to present your plans as well as to ask questions that spark contributions & brainstorming. Share the goals of your new strategy in advance so that stakeholders ...

I know this isn't tactical, but I would make sure to include them in the product launch kick off meeting (which happens ever before you have your entire plan built) because it helps them understand WHY you are launching what you are launching and enables them to feel part of the journey - part of the team - that will make this launch a success. Because ultimately, it is a team that makes launches happen. It can't be done alone. I know this isn't a tactic (quite yet) but I mention this step because it will help you get buy-in so you don't have to 'convince' anyone in marketing to launch t...

You need to get buy-in to the GTM strategy before you build it that includes: * involving the team in the strategy development process, as this can increase their ownership and commitment to the GTM plan * providing clear goals and objectives to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals for the launch  Involving stakeholders early on can help to ensure that the GTM strategy aligns with the overall goals and objectives of the company and that it takes into account the needs and perspectives of all relevant parties. Once you have developed a go-to-market strategy, ...

PLG doesnt change the role of PMM. If anything a PMM becomes even more important cause in PLG, you are not training a sales team but your website/landing page to be your leading sales rep. PMMs need to focus on conveying the value/outcomes message, handle objections, address FAQ on the landing page itself. I like to think of it as "enabling" the landing page as being a key focus for PMM in a product-led org.

In a product-led company, the product is the primary driver of growth and revenue. The "product" is responsible for acquiring and retaining customers, and the company's overall focus is on creating a valuable and engaging product experience. In this scenario, the role of product marketing is to showcase product capabilities that can be the trigger for user acquisition. This comes to GTM focus, launch messaging, and chosen GMT channels.

I would grab/cultivate any testimonials, use cases, and customer-driven artifacts from the first launch to build a more targeted and informed launch the second time around. Even better, host a webinar with top plays from the first segment of customers who benefited from the initial launch, to inform the second launch moment and accelerate time to value. Show them how it worked via customer "plays" and use cases versus telling. 

If you're relaunching a product to a new audience, they won't have any idea that you're relaunching it. For that reason, I typically approach product relaunches as I would a typical launch with the bonus knowledge I have from lessons learned the first time around. Whether you're changing the name, the value prop, or the product capability you should follow your typical product launch process. Just ensure you redefine your objectives and measurements. 

I love this question! Yes, I have (and many companies) do it all the time! Why? Because you know your product so much better than your customres. They don't know about everything that you've ever launched - they are doing so many other things.  So for a relaunch, decide the specific audience you want to target, and adapt your messaging & positioning to focus on what will resonate the most with this audience. What are their specific problems and goals -- and how does this product help them solve that? And make the CTA easy. You can reuse a lot of the content you had created for the initia...

It depends on your resources and the skills of your team.  A larger company might be able to tap into more channels successfully or might already have more users and so the launch will inherently be more amplified.  You can still do a successful launch as a small company with some creativity and good storytelling! Try to think about the channels that will have the most impact given your constraints and work with a good designer to make compelling assets, and use Loom to create fun demos...(shameless plug!). 

I've worked at Series B startups all the way up to F500 companies. The theory behind product launches is the same - you want to align your launch to business goals. But, the HOW (the tactics and resources) and the WHO (the team) behind executing a product launch are really where there are differences.  At a F500 company, you've got dedicated teams for naming, brand, sales enablement, web, social, and more. PMMs might focus only on launch messaging at a larger company, and spend a lot of time on stakeholder management and alignment. At a smaller company, you've got fewer stakeholders t...

You can read my answer about taking a Tiered approach in one of the other answers. If you're a lean start up, I would suggest focusing on doing just 2 Tier 1 launches a year, and sprinkle in two Tier 2s throughout the year (rather than the 3 Tier 1s 3 Tier 2s I recommend for a more mature company). In addition to quanity of launches, you can use your "Bill of Deliverables" as a lever. Bill of Deliverables are the assets you are going to create for launch - think customers facing slides, messaging & positioning, one pagers, ads, landing pages, email campaigns, enablement training, press r...

This answer may be two-fold. As for tools we use for launches, we find Coda to be pretty indespensible. We've designed our launch template within it that serves as a master doc for all GTM documentation associated with a launch. It centralizes all our key launch documentation from the GTM strategy, deliverables, DACI, launch activities and more. It's indepsnesible because it truly makes project management extrememly easy, and offers a ton of flexibility. The reason I say this answer is two-fold is because Coda is only one part of the solution. I think all product marketing teams should ha...

A rock solid messaging doc is the most indispensable tool for a product launch. I still live by the mantra that Lorraine Twohill, Google’s CMO, instills in all PMMs: “Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two.” Understanding the desires and pain of your customer is important. And understanding, in a fair amount of detail, the discrete features that make a product so special is critical. But the best PMMs are able to connect how those amazing features uniquely alleviate the specific pain points of the user. Once you have a handle on the positioning, the challenge is to translate t...

For me this has always been what we call the Messaging Source Doc (MSD) at Zendesk, but it can also be called other things depending on where you work. The MSD is the foundation upon which a product launch is built - it holds information about what the product does and how it works, its value props, the ideal target audience, competitor information, pricing, differentiators, what customer challenges it solves, pricing and strategy. It also acts as a map for cross-functional teams like campaigns, AR, PR, social media teams, etc. who are helping with the product launch to remain consistent in...

I don't know if this counts as a tool but I would say your overall plan. Whether that's in a gantt chart, excel, slide deck or Asana (or any other project management tool), it's critical that you have a full view of your launch plan from Day 1 to Launch day -- and then the promotional activities after (so that you can track lagging indicators of launch (your launch goals).