Lara McCaskill

The most common pitfalls that can derail product launches are usually something like: Not planning for the unplanned Not having clear alignment around launch goals - across teams (Marketing, Product, Sales, etc.) Not having the right ICP/Persona Here's how I've navigated these in the past: Planning for the unplanned: has a product launch ever been delayed? Timelines shift ALL the time. Scope also changes. Having contingency plans and getting creative around hard launch dates has been a life save ...Read More

The most important thing with shifting launches and leadership whiplash is to assess impact. I typically run through a series of questions to better understand the context around any decision to shift a launch. What is the primary reason for the shift? Is it a hard requirement or a desired outcome? What is the business impact for the shift? Often days and weeks has very little impact, unless the launch is tied to an event that cannot be moved. What are the trade offs of keeping the plan of recor ...Read More

Having product launches follow a set process is hugely beneficial for any team, especially a rapidly scaling one that is likely launching often. I like to start with what are the launch tiers. Not every launch has the same customer impact and therefore the same deliverables. I like 3 tiers - think of that as Small, Medium, Large. You could even through in XS for the stuff that does not have any impact on customers current way of doing something and therefore does not require marketing support. F ...Read More

Three words come top of mind for this one: Sales, Enablement and Ops. In a B2B company, you often have 2 (or even more) customers: Sales and Buyers. Sales can be a wealth of information and they are typically highly motivated ($$$$) to get their problems solved and are never short of providing input and feedback to Product Marketing. This can also be challenging to understand what Sales wants versus what actually address Buyer needs. Working with Sales also involves some type Sales enablement fu ...Read More

Having a post launch plan is just as important as any other elements of your launch plan. Here's how I usually navigate the post launch activity at a high level: Retrospective needs to happen with 1 week of launch, when it's fresh and relevant for all Aligning with product prior to launch on the key metrics to be tracked across adoption and marketing activity. For marketing, monitoring the first few days to ensure there's nothing off with the launch Then weekly, assessing how you're progressing ...Read More

This all comes down to how is the rest of the business organized. If you're organizing in a way that's incongrous to everyone else in the org, you will not be setup for success. With smaller nimble teams it's likely just based on bandwith and who has room to take things on. With larger teams, or as a team is being built out, it's best to align with your core cross-functional partners such as Product. There is usually overlap with PMMs working with 2-3 PMs. I've organized teams by product area in ...Read More

The biggest differences in SaaS pricing and consumer software pricing can be grouped into 3 key buckets: Discounting SaaS discounts based on volume - e.g. price per user typically goes down the more user seats you purchase. There is also room to negotiate the pricing based on volume, term length, or if the customer is already or also purchasing other products from the same vendor. Consumer software discounts typically come in the form of term length - e.g. the monthly cost goes down the more mon ...Read More

The biggest opportunity to partner across marketing for a successful product launch comes down to understanding your partners' priorities. With any launch, you'll likely partner with a number of different marketing disciplines from creative, to brand, to lifecycle, demand gen, paid marketing, event marketing, and many more. Knowing where each of these teams priorities are is key to understanding how you can partner best with them and avoiding unnecessary headaches. Are your cross-functional part ...Read More

The best way to assess the priorities of core PMM responsibilities against larger go-to-market launch efforts is to understand the business objectives and how these activities map to those objectives. Ideally you have clearly defined OKRs or measurable business outcomes that your activities support. For example: Run the business initiatives have the OKRs of $XX in revenue, $ARR, or MAU, etc. - your core PMM responsibilities should ladder into this. Understand how competitive intel, research, mes ...Read More

A successful product launch should be measured across 3 key dimensions: 1) success criteria 2) measurable outcomes that PMM can influence and 3) shared understanding of business and cross-functional team goals. Start with your ideal success criteria: what outcomes do you want to at launch and 30,60,90 days post launch? Make these outcomes measurable and within your sphere of influence. Don’t sign up for product adoption goals if that isn’t a lever PMM can influence. Collaborate with partners to ...Read More