Product Launch — 1
Where We Are in the Process
So far we have completed the following steps in the Product Development Process
- Product definition
- Gathering of requirements
- Product development and design
And now we are ready to LAUNCH our product!
In this course, we will focus on the steps we need to take to get our product out into the market.
We will learn how to:
- Create a process to maximize your chances for a successful launch
- Work with the Marketing team to develop a successful marketing strategy
- Collaborate with other launch partners including Sales and Customer Support
- Incorporate post-launch feedback and plan the next steps for your product
Why is Product Launch So Important?
Why Do Product Launches Fail?
There are a number of reasons but here are a few key types of failure:
- A flawed process
- The product doesn’t resonate with the user
- Lack of Sales and Customer Support team training
Things to Remember About Product Launches
- The end of one launch process is the beginning of a new one
After every launch, you need to look at user feedback to help you decide where to take your product next. - Your brain is the most important tool you will use as a Product Manager
Although there are a lot of tools that PMs use, the most effective tool is their product intuition. You can sharpen your product intuition through experience and by learning more about how the process works. - Launches should be celebrated!
A successful product launch is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Take the time to celebrate the launch and recognize everyone’s contribution.
Remember, If you don’t launch, no one will ever know about your amazing product!
Launch and Your Career
Product Launches are Important for Your Career and Relationships with Your Partner Teams
Things to Remember About Launches and Your Career
- Your career will be measured by your launches
- It is ok to fail, as long as you and the team learn from the experience
- Sharing credit and celebrating the launches will build trust with your partner teams
- Leadership wants to see product progression and growth
Historical Context for Product Launches
Things to Remember About Modern Product Launches
- Mistakes can be easier to fix because it is easier to update code than recall a physical product
- Modern channels like the App Store make it easier to connect directly with users
Course Structure
The Party App Details
- We are a well-supported startup with fully staffed engineering, marketing, sales, legal, testing and customer support teams
- We are developing a new mobile app on iOS (English language only)
- The goal of our app is to help users organize parties.
- The primary use-case is organizing birthday parties for kids.
- Our value proposition is that we have everything you need to organize a party in one place:
- Venues and party entertainment
- Decorations and other party supplies
- Invitations and guest list management
- Presents and gift registries
- We will have revenue sharing with the vendors (we get a percentage of their sales)
In this lesson we’ll cover the following topics:
- Setting up a launch process
- Scaling your product
- Mitigating the risks for your launch
Defining Your Launch Process
New Terms
Product Launch: The step in your product development when you completed your product and you are ready to launch it in the market.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator): In the case of product launch, KPI is a quantifiable measurement of performance that is used to evaluate the success of a product launch or other business objectives.
Things to Remember About the Launch Process
- Planning ahead is critical.
The launch process should be set up before product development is complete. - Involve key partners
Every launch is different but in most cases you’ll want to engage with the engineering, testing teams, marketing, sales, privacy and legal. - Define your metrics before the launch This will give you time to design an effective feedback mechanism to measure the product’s success.
Typical Launch
Every launch is different but they often include steps like these:
- Define your criteria for launch
- List the partners who need to be should be aware of your launch
- Legal
- Managers and leadership
- Technical support
- Marketing
- Technical
- Create a timeline of what should happen and when. If you have a release manager and/or a program manager you’ll need their input on the timeline
The process should work for you and not you for the process.
New Terms
P0: A high-priority issue that must be fixed before launch.
P1: An issue that is a high priority but not necessarily a launch blocker. The Product Manager, Testing and Engineering teams need to decide if the issue should be fixed before launch.
Our Launch Process for the App Store
- The legal team reviewed our TOS (terms of service), our privacy data storage and all legal items and gave us ok at least 2 weeks before the launch.
- Testing is complete. All the bugs are reviewed and assessed. No P0 or P1 are left.
- The engineering team gave their ok for the launch. They have a dedicated person on call for the day of the release. They have all the metrics and monitors in place.
- The marketing team is ready and gave their ok for launch. They already have prepared blog posts and their marketing plan
- Release notes will be ready at least one week before the submission to Apple. All visual elements for the store are ready
- Leadership reviewed our project and gave us a green light 3 weeks before the launch.
- We are ready at least 3 days before the submission to the App Store.
- We submit the app to the AppStore
- App is approved
- Push the button! (and watch for metrics including downloads post-launch crashes)
Why Having a Good Launch Process Matters
Things to Remember About Product Launches
- As a product manager, you are measured by your launches.
- Having a good process eliminates the stress in the launch
- Mistakes will happen but having a good process will help keep mistakes to a minimum.
- Learn from your mistakes and better yet, share your learnings with a broader team
Create a Launch Process
Now that you have learned about how to set up a launch process, it is your turn to give it a try with our party organization app.
We know it is a mobile app for iOS, so we know we will need to submit our app for a review with Apple so we can get it in the App Store. Think about the teams you need to talk to and the steps you need to take to prepare for launch.
Launch Process
My Solution
Your solution might be different — but here is what I would do:
- We will define the teams we need to get approvals from:
- Legal
- Marketing
- Engineering
- Sales
- Leadership
- Privacy
- We will seek all approvals ahead of the launch, where privacy and legal should be discussed ahead of the release, in case there are any concerns
- We will get approval from our leadership for the launch
- Testing approval is the last step in the process
- Once we have all approvals, we will make sure we are ready for submission to Apple and line up technical support for the launch itself.
Enrichment Activity
Think through your experience, at your company:
- Have you seen a good launch process?
- How does your company handle new product/features launches?
Additional Reading
Learn more about launching products here:
Introduction to Scaling Products,
New Terms
Scaling your product: Launching your product to more markets. It can be new geography, or a new language, a completely new market.
Things to Remember About Scaling
- Research is extremely important when going after a new market
You can’t just copy your product from one market to another without validating that your product will work the same way in the new market. Your marketing and your acquisition channels also might require some changes. - New Market = New Culture
Work with local experts or find ways to understand the culture of your potential market. Cultural norms and expectations can differ widely from place to place. - Don’t forget to check local laws
Confirm that your product is legal in your new market. There may be different requirements in the new market.
Additional Reading
How Do You Decide Where to Launch Next?
New Terms
Left to right or right to left: the way some of the languages described, meaning the way you start writing. English is a left-to-right language, while Arabic is “right-to-left”
Key Questions to Ask when Considering a New Market
- How many potential customers are there in the new market?
- Do you need to change the language?
- Are there any cultural differences?
- Will we incur any new costs to launch in the new market?
Things to Remember About Considering a New Market
- Language is not just translation
Languages vary in length, which can affect your UI. Languages might have cultural interpretations and meanings. Some languages are right to left and not left to right, it is important if you are launching in a country with a different language to validate that your product works. - Test Everything!!!!
Ask local users for direct feedback. And don’t forget to leverage your team. You probably are working with a very diverse group of coworkers so engage them and ask for their help.
Scaling Example
New Terms
Landing page: The first-page user sees during the sign up process or it can be the main page, user access the product from.
Scaling to Different Markets and Languages
- Quick Wins
When looking for the next market you will need to balance speed to market and research. Quick wins are important to gain the trust of your leadership - Easiest Market
We started with the easiest market to launch in: Canada. We launched in English first - Expand to New Languages
It is a good idea to work on the translations ahead of time if you are planning global expansion. We supported all the languages supported by our company. - Prioritization
Do ruthless prioritization for your resources and time. Translation takes time, adjusting your product to a new country takes time. Plan ahead and make sure you are chasing the right priorities. We prioritized our biggest markets first, to maximize the exposure. - Understanding your User and Market
We spent a lot of time analyzing our data on different markets and learning which market should go next.
More Things to Remember About Scaling
- Not all products are scalable outside of their primary market
- Knowing when and how to scale are important
- Products need to evolve and grow to stay relevant
My Solution
Here is what I would do:
- Find a country or culture where parties are extremely important:
- Israel because many 12–13 years olds have a big party for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah
- Define the metrics that will help us make our decision:
- How many 12–13 years olds are there in Israel?
- List the language issues:
- Need to translate to Hebrew, and possibly Russian and Arabic too
- Must make sure the app can work with a Right-to-Left language because Hebrew is RTL
Additional Reading
Learn more about scaling here:
- 7 Scaling Challenges That Can Sink Even Successful Companies
- The 7 Deadly Sins Of Startups: Premature Scaling
New Terms
Edge Case: the scenario in the product which is not typical but can occur in certain circumstances
Rollback Plan: the plan you put together if you need to ”undo” your launch.
Identifying and Mitigating Risks
Identifying Risks for a New Product Launch
- Is the product finished?
- Has it been tested?
- Do we have enough support?
- Did we notify all of our partners?
- Did we check with Legal?
- Did we think about what can go wrong?
- Do we have a rollback plan?
Our biggest risk is MISCOMMUNICATION!!!
Example: Risks in Launching a Product to Multiple Countries
New Terms
Gradual Roll Out: When instead of launching our product to 100% of your users, you gradually increase the percent of users seeing/using your product
Understanding and Mitigating Risks
- Know your product
Each product is different and will have different risks. If you are new to a product, ask a lot of questions, especially about any previous failures. - Talk to all the right people
Make sure that you are in contact with all of the relevant teams including engineering, testing, legal, marketing, sales, support and more. - Keep assessing the risks
Just because you already have previously launched a product, you can’t be sure that it won’t break again. Things break, even if “nobody touched them”. - Pay extra attention to anything new or special
New things tend to break more. Make sure that you analyze the potential risks in a new or unique situation. - Give everyone enough time to do their job
Do your best to provide all of your teams the time they need and you will gain credibility as a person who sets reasonable deadlines. This will be helpful when you are up against a tight deadline and you need to convince people to work more hours and go the extra mile for you. That happens, a lot! - Make a plan for when things go wrong
Nobody likes to think about what can go wrong — but as a PM it is your job to be prepared. Planning for the worst case scenario makes it easier to quickly handle problems when they arise. - Plan, communicate and then execute
A launch without a good plan will have more chances to fail. A plan that isn’t communicated, can’t be executed.
My Risks Plan
General Risks
- Engineering: Talk to the Engineering team and confirm that our system can handle the extra pressure of the market expansion
- Testing: Test the UI for the new languages
International Risks
- Translation: The EU has 24 different languages. Confirm that all of the translations are ready.
- Marketing: Our marketing messages need to work in all of the EU countries. Marketing will need a lot of time to prepare all of the materials
Are We Ready to Launch?
- Did we finish all the parts of product development? Don’t just assume we are done. Talk to our engineering team and test the product. Does it do what it is supposed to do?
- Did we finish all the testing? Do not just assume that all the testing has been done. Test even the most crazy scenarios and think through edge cases. Make sure that you personally test your product (if possible).
- Did we set you the right date for our launch? Did we secure all the technical support we need for launch? Do we have the right support if something goes wrong?
- Did we give enough time to all of our partners? What if one of our teams doesn’t have enough time to complete their pre-launch tasks? Do we have a plan for that? Make sure to think beyond the immediate partners and consider all of the tasks that need to be completed for launch.
- Did we cover all our legal bases? Do we understand all of the risks? Do we feel confident that we are prepared to handle them?
- Did we think about the worst-case scenario? What is our worst-case scenario? Are we prepared for it? Do we have a rollback plan?
- Have we communicated enough? Communicate, communicate, communicate. That will save a lot of headaches.
Additional Reading
Read more about launch risks:
- 3 Risks to Consider for a Product Launch Risk Assessment
- What are the 5 Risk Management Steps in a Sound Risk Management Process?
Step 1: Identify the Risk. You and your team uncover, recognize and describe risks that might affect your project or its outcomes. There are a number of techniques you can use to find project risks. During this step you start to prepare your Project Risk Register.
Step 2: Analyze the risk. Once risks are identified you determine the likelihood and consequence of each risk. You develop an understanding of the nature of the risk and its potential to affect project goals and objectives. This information is also input to your Project Risk Register.
Step 3: Evaluate or Rank the Risk. You evaluate or rank the risk by determining the risk magnitude, which is the combination of likelihood and consequence. You make decisions about whether the risk is acceptable or whether it is serious enough to warrant treatment. These risk rankings are also added to your Project Risk Register.
Step 4: Treat the Risk. This is also referred to as Risk Response Planning. During this step you assess your highest ranked risks and set out a plan to treat or modify these risks to achieve acceptable risk levels. How can you minimize the probability of the negative risks as well as enhancing the opportunities? You create risk mitigation strategies, preventive plans and contingency plans in this step. And you add the risk treatment measures for the highest ranking or most serious risks to your Project Risk Register.
Step 5: Monitor and Review the risk. This is the step where you take your Project Risk Register and use it to monitor, track and review risks.
Risk is about uncertainty. If you put a framework around that uncertainty, then you effectively de-risk your project. And that means you can move much more confidently to achieve your project goals. By identifying and managing a comprehensive list of project risks, unpleasant surprises and barriers can be reduced and golden opportunities discovered. The risk management process also helps to resolve problems when they occur, because those problems have been envisaged, and plans to treat them have already been developed and agreed. You avoid impulsive reactions and going into “fire-fighting” mode to rectify problems that could have been anticipated. This makes for happier, less stressed project teams and stakeholders. The end result is that you minimize the impacts of project threats and capture the opportunities that occur.
If you enjoyed this article our Risk Management Online Course expands on these concepts and gives you the practical skills to impress your boss by developing a comprehensive risk management process.
Before We Move On…
- Mistakes will happen:
The best way to minimize these mistakes is by planning ahead. Write down your plan and communicate it. Don’t assume people know what you are doing, because chances are they don’t. Communicating a clear plan gives you a vote of confidence. - Time is important:
You will have a lot of stressful launches, where time is extremely short. When you can and have enough time, don’t wait till the last minute to loop in your partners because they might have other priorities. - Think outside of the box:
Whether it is a launch, thinking through risks or thinking about how to scale your product, find creative ways to do things faster or better. When thinking about risks, think beyond the obvious ones. - Learn, research and ask for help:
When the time comes and you need to scale your product, learn and research what you can and ask others for help. Great planning goes a long way when you need to scale your product. Think about how you can get quick wins, what can be done fast and what needs more work. Consider your markets, which one has the higher potential. - Be the glue:
You are the glue of the team, you are the motivator, you are the one who is going to push the team in the hard moments. That is why it is important to remember to encourage your team and get to know your team. Say thank you to your team members, show your appreciation.
