Are You Using Cross-Functional Teams to Improve Product Launch Success?
Overview: This blog post content is part of recent document that is available on my website. For the full document, go to my website on the Strategy and Planning page: Creating a Well-Coordinated Product Launch and Marketing Plan.
A product launch is both exciting and a well-prepared series of coordinated programs and steps. Have your full organization knowledgeable and committed to the responsibilities that are required and the target dates for completed actions up to, and the day of, the launch.
For example, participation from executive leadership, and a cross-functional team from marketing, sales, product management, R&D, manufacturing, customer support, professional services, and other groups, can enable a positive and successful launch process. Set specific goals to focus efforts and monitor results.
This document’s audience is the marketing and product management teams in technology companies that are responsible for product and service development and deployment.
Launch Day Planning and Post Launch Follow-up
A driving motivation for launch planning and the actual launch day is to be prepared and organized. The examples provided below in are to guide your planning strategy and efforts. Keep in mind that despite you and your team’s best efforts, it’s always a good idea to be ready for the unexpected. Be flexible and adaptable as your launch day approaches as well as on the day itself. Be ready to make changes “on the fly.”
When developing your launch plan, determine what type of launch event to implement. Two common approaches are a “soft launch” and a “hard launch.” A soft launch is characterized by being more limited in its scope. This includes the level of market awareness, customers targeted, geographic coverage, time in planning, and overall costs. A soft launch is good fit for start-ups with initial versions, newer products from establish companies, and for testing new features and versions before commitment to a finalized version.
A hard launch is comprehensive in activities and outreach with the goals of raising as much marketplace awareness as possible and driving new or updated purchasing. As a maximum effort across the organization, a hard launch fits well for full-version releases of more established products that are in high-growth or mature markets.
An effective product launch, as shown in the table, requires cross-organizational coordination, planning, and teaming. Each of these actions and tasks needs to be tested, verified, supported, and in place by launch day. Depending the size and nature of your organization, you can add and modify as needed.
Launch Plan Coordination Summary by Functional Groups
When setting the launch day and location, evaluate if they can be coordinated with a significant external event such as a tradeshow or major marketplace activity.
Your overall marketing strategy, go-to-market programs, and product launch plan must be aligned and integrated. Build your launch plan, including goals and actions, with these elements as a base—add additional elements and activities that best fit your organization. For a more information on the go-to-market and planning processes, see my report: Implementing Effective Go-to-Market Plans and Programs.
Post-launch activities are an important part of the overall launch process. Make sure to have the proper procedures and processes in place to:
“Roll back” any purchasing and usage special offers and options
Communicate with your customers and user groups to determine those that will be your best marketplace ambassadors
Coordinate across product management, R&D, customer support, professional services, and sales for external feedback, bug fixes and product problems, and planning for the next release cycle(s)
Follow-up with analysts, press members, journalists, and publications for coverage or if additional materials are needed
Assess marketplace and competitive responses and react as needed.
Recommendations
Use these planning ideas to develop a flexible launch plan and set of processes across your organization. Design your product launch timeline based on:
Pre-launch: begin planning and coordination several months before the target product availability and launch day; design and deliver activities for either a soft or hard launch
Launch day: even with all your planning and careful review, be flexible for last-minute changes or glitches that might occur and modify accordingly
Post-launch: follow-up with internal groups with launch day updates; have goals, metrics, and an evaluation time-frame in place to measure results.
Please contact me if you have any questions or comments: thomasgeid@comcast.net.