How to make a Product Launch?

 

Hi everyone,

Here I am listing out steps for any generic product launch, right from product conceptualization till post product launch activities.

This is my version of the flow and there are many versions available already. There is no exact "holy grail" for the process but I am sure, this could be definitely help many of you to start and eventually, make finer adjustments, as and when required!

This article is slightly lengthy but I find it useful and informative! So, let's begin.

Steps for product launch:

• Research on available competitive products in specific market and collect Customer's feedback
   
• Identify 4-5 most popular customer pain points in those products and discuss with development team about those
   
• Identify exactly what customer problem we would be able to solve, in given time frame and available resources. These goals must be SMART, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reachable and Timely
   
• Now entire development phase would be divided into 3 phases, alpha launch, beta launch and final launch
   
• Each launch would have its set of activities or milestones to be accomplished; only once predefined milestones are met in respective phase, phased launch is considered successful
   
• Towards the end of each phase, product need thorough evaluation and backup is created to avoid and last minute glitches later
   
• Once alpha phase completes, a product specific website need to be created, which would start engaging potential customers around the product under development. Discuss about the technology used, how this product is going to create real difference and address already identified pain points. This website would also helps to line up B2B deals and collect feedback from potential customers. This would also help to create leads or customers to buy product when it is ready to launch, thus creates pre-orders channels
   
• Development/technical team is busy in developing product. Meanwhile, other teams need to be involved for various other activities in parallel, such as:
  • Product marketing
  • Product management
  • General marketing teams, such as PR, analyst relations, and investor relations.
  • Field sales,
  • Legal,
  • Sales operations
     
• Each team should have their checklist where they have their set of scheduled activities
   
• Marketing team should be primarily engaged in:
  • fueling interest among people by writing promo materials
  • Connects with journalists or editors from respectable media outlets who will write a news story about your company and the upcoming release
  • Involves popular influencers, who would receive beta products, try and share feedback with their followers
     
• Product manager coordinates activities of each team and list them in project management tool such as Jira so that each activity, responsible person/team and timeline is visible to everyone. Daily Standup activity, sprints, retrospectives / SCRUM would help to keep track of each activities, identify task dependencies, any potential blockers and maintain them on track
   
• Pricing strategy
  • Competitor-based and value-based pricing are common options for products purchased with a single payment.
  • Freemium model and only charge for the product’s upgraded versions, or
  • One-time payment for access or download.
  • Subscription plans and the pay-as-you-go approach are popular as well
     
• Promotion strategy
  • Outline a promotion strategy and assign employees that will be responsible for it. Popular tactics for promoting software solutions are
  • Lead generation –
    • email campaigns,
    • social media contact,
    • organic searches,
    • paid searches,
    • referrals,
    • website.
  • Content marketing –
    • organic search with articles,
    • videos,
    • landing pages,
    • podcasts, or infographics about your industry.
  • Social media marketing –
    • using ads on social media,
    • posting your content and industry news about to grow your fanbase
       
• Once product reached towards end of main phase, a Go/No Go launch meeting, during which each department gives their feedback about the product and readiness of the product
   
• Product Launch Done!
   
• Measure launch success
  • The percentage of positive reviews vs negative and neutral ones,
  • Customer retention,
  • The actual number of purchases or subscriptions (with a breakdown by subscription types) vs forecast, and
  • The influence of added features on the total conversion
     
• Post Launch
  • Continue building up the interest in the product among potential customers,
  • nurturing emails,
  • free trials,
  • demos,
  • in-depth, product-focused webinars and activities
     
• Product manager collect and analyze user feedback and use analytics to gain insights and prioritize between:
   
  • Building new features which were initially identified and specified in user stories OR
  • Making critical urgent changes in the launched product that can affect product performance and acceptance metrics and user experience.
    
    
    Hope you would have found this article informative and interesting.
    Happy learning:-)