When it comes to launching a new product or feature, the process is as crucial as the product itself. Over the years, I’ve seen incredible products fail due to poor launch strategies and mediocre products succeed thanks to outstanding launches. Success lies not just in the brilliance of the idea but in the execution of the launch strategy, and founders who master both the foundational groundwork and the execution process will be the ones who win in the competitive market. This comprehensive guide will help you lay the foundation and execute the launch, setting your product up to achieve the success it deserves.
Laying the Foundation
Before diving into development, it’s crucial to establish a strong foundation for your product. This initial phase sets the stage for success, ensuring that every step you take is aligned with your overall business goals and customer needs. Here are five steps to help lay a solid foundation:
Develop a Solid Business Case
The journey begins with developing a solid business case. Before you even start building, it’s essential to outline the pain points your product will solve for your customers and project its contribution to your revenue over the next three years. Don’t forget to factor in the costs involved. Documenting everything helps hold your team accountable and validates these assumptions with your customers. The key question to ask is: If you build it, will they buy?
Maintain Alignment with Business Objectives
As you start building, it’s crucial to maintain alignment with your business objectives. Regularly validate your progress against your initial business case. Establish critical sign-off points with key leaders at significant milestones and involve a select group of customers in the process for ongoing feedback.
Conduct Thorough Beta Testing
When your product is ready for testing, conduct thorough beta testing with a diverse group of customers. Ensure these customers represent all your target segments—SMB, MM, and Enterprise. This approach will help you identify any segment-specific issues early.
Align with Customer Teams Early
Early alignment with customer teams is also vital. Engage with your beta customers early to get their teams, such as legal and IT, on board for testing. This is particularly important for enterprise customers, where internal approvals can take time.
Case Studies and Testimonials
Secure commitments from your beta customers for case studies and testimonials. Ensure they agree to provide case studies and video testimonials and act as references for your sales team. This will be invaluable for your go-to-market strategy.
Executing the Launch
With a solid foundation in place and thorough testing completed, it’s time to shift focus to executing a successful product launch. This phase is all about preparing your go-to-market teams to sell this new investment, building anticipation, and ensuring a smooth introduction to the market. Here are the essential steps to effectively launch your new product.
Leverage Beta Customer Success Stories
Begin by leveraging the success stories from your beta customers. Review these case studies with your product, marketing, and sales leadership. Clearly articulate the challenges solved and the benefits received, using data points like revenue generated, costs saved, or time eliminated. Integrate these stories into your sales decks and website.
Establish a Reference Process
Establish a reference process to ensure beta customers are willing to act as references. Develop a system to determine which deals or strategic logos get access to these references, to avoid overwhelming your beta customers and maximize their impact.
Launch Customer Marketing Campaigns
Launch marketing campaigns targeting both new and existing customers to build your pipeline. Existing customers offer significant expansion opportunities.
Train Your GTM Teams
Training your GTM teams is crucial. Equip your sales, customer success, professional services, sales engineers, and member support teams with the knowledge and tools they need. They are the frontline marketers for your new product, so ensure they can pitch, demo, answer questions, and provide support effectively.
Start Activities Early
All preparatory activities should begin approximately eight weeks before the official product announcement to start building pipeline. Creating incentives for your GTM team to sell the new product can also be highly effective. Set pipeline build goals for each team member and monitor progress with dashboards.
Create GTM Incentives
Establish a process with your finance and product teams to monitor usage, pipeline, and sales. Provide weekly reports to leadership to ensure transparency and accountability.
Launching a Great Product
Officially launch the product with Product and Marketing leadership leading the charge. Consider hosting “Ask Me Anything” sessions with your current customer base to scale education about the product with R&D leadership involvement.
Conclusion
Successfully launching a great product requires more than just a great idea. It involves careful planning, validation, and execution. By following these steps, you can build a strong foundation and effectively bring your new product to market, driving growth, creating a competitive moat, and enhancing the customer experience. At Madrona, we are passionate about guiding our founders through this journey. This commitment is part of why I chose to partner with the Madrona team, leveraging our combined expertise to help founders succeed in bringing innovative products to market. In June, we are launching quarterly GTM sessions with our portfolio — keep an eye out for blogs highlighting the insights from each of those sessions in the months to come.