
Ask the Experts
Go-to-Market Planning your next product launch? Alex Virden, Senior PMM at EVERFI will be answering all your questions on how to put the correct processes in place. Go on, ask away!
Planning your next product launch? Alex Virden, Senior PMM at EVERFI will be answering all your questions on how to put the correct processes in place. Go on, ask away!
Where am I?
In Product Marketing Alliance you can ask and answer questions and share your experience with others!
Hi Alex! What would you say is the most important aspect of a product launch - the one for which you absolutely can't allow the process to fail?
Hi @Chloie Brandrick! The most important part of a product launch is the unsung heroes of all launches -- the feedback loops you put into place.
These will help avoid communication and process breakdowns and help you (the product marketer) shape and reshape the processes needed for a successful product or service launch.
So what do feedback loops look like? Collecting feedback during each stage could align with your product team's Agile environment with stands ups and retrospectives. Or, it could be setting time to meet and review, or sharing out a survey, or simply having a "virtual" water cooler conversation with your launch team.
Not only do you collect valuable insights from these conversations that can help you tighten your launch processes, but you also build trust and a sense of community with each launch.
Attached you'll see the stages of our launches at EVERFI.
Within each step, I set up check-ins and brainstorming sessions with my critical cross-functional team members which are Demand Generation, Customer Marketing, Impact & Education/Research, Product, Sales, and Sales Enablement to make sure I'm adjusting as needed based on internal/external feedback. Getting to market at EVERFI is genuinely a team effort and ensuring we're leaning into market demand/need is critical.
These feedback loops help ensure we deliver our products to the right market with the right messaging.
Post-launch, it's also super important to keep lines of communication open. Product Marketing is the central function to connect teams and open lines of communication.
Hi Alex,
Thank you for making time for this. Curious to know, what are the key areas one should focus on when planning a launch for a relatively unknown product category for a market that would need to be educated more on how to use the product?
Hi Alex,
One last question, from your personal experience, how different is it to launch a product for a start up compared to launching a product for an already established company? what are the areas to really focus on for the processes set for these separate types of companies?
Hey Alex!
Has COVID-19 altered any of the processes you would usually put in place for your product launch?
Hi @Fergus Johnson !
Yes, the “new normal” has changed some of the ways we launch products. Some examples -
In speaking with others Product Marketers, it seems many are taking it week by week and quarter by quarter with what processes make sense to keep, to evolve, or to get rid of when it comes to launch.
Hey Alex, thanks for taking the time to do this. I’m interested in picking your brains - what has been your most successful product launch to-date, and why?
Hi @Sara Newman!
I recently worked on a product that was pretty exciting to bring to market and happened to recently be named a PMA Awards finalist for Product Launch of the Year.
The product is a 25 minute course that was developed and launched in 6 weeks to support US companies and colleges response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is designed for multiple learner audiences (college students and employees in multiple industries) and provides students and employees with practical guidance on how to protect their physical health, support their mental well-being, and work or study effectively onsite or offsite.
This training was designed for companies, non-profits, and institutions of higher education in the United States with separate content tracked for students and employees. The concept was approved on June 17 and the course was written and developed in 6 week, launching on July 31st, 2020. All go-to-market initiatives took place in parallel with the product build.
Our go to market included pre-launch sales initiatives, webinar campaigns focusing on key themes in the course, and product training for three of our four internal revenue teams. Because this was a surprise addition to our product roadmap and launched in 30% of our typical build time all the work we had done to standardize product marketing processes and assets was put to the test, and product marketing became much more involved in the development of the course, attending daily stand ups for course development and running a weekly go to market meeting.
In addition to the accelerated timeline, and developing marketing materials while the content was still being finalized, the most challenging part of this product launch was researching and tailoring product positioning for the course to the different audiences: 1) colleges looking for a back to school training for students, 2) colleges looking for return to work/working remotely training for faculty and campus staff, 3) companies returning to the physical workplace, 3) companies continuing to work remotely 4) companies taking a hybrid approach because their business model requires in-person interactions with their customers (retail, healthcare, etc.).
Many things went into making this a successful launch. First, product marketing has worked hard to standardize and streamline our asset development process. Without this work, we would not have been able to work so nimbly, or seamlessly pull additional members onto this project as needed. Centralized folders, standardized templates, and clear definition of roles allowed us to work quickly and nimbly, parallel processing asset creation alongside product development.
In terms of market reception, our speedy development of the course and it’s flexibility to support multiple learners and industries enabled us to really expand the potential reach of this course. Our subject matter experts have topic (mental wellness, public health, harassment prevention) and industry expertise (legal/risk experts, etc.) informed by the content of the course and have been indispensable in helping craft industry specific positioning for the course.
Here is an example of a press announcement put out by a customer about the course: https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/mandatory-student-safety-course/
Hey Alex! How do you go about negotiating more budget for a product launch? What data do you normally use to justify it?
Hey Alex!
One thing I really struggle with is getting teams OUTSIDE of product marketing to stick to our processes. Do you have any advice/learning from how you’ve managed to get this alignment?
Hi @Matt Simmonds! See the answer I shared on @Chloie Brandrick's question.
Outside of putting feedback loops in place, I think what has helped me is project management tools like Trello, JIRA, and my launch spreadsheets.
My launch spreadsheets have:
I use the spreadsheets for our bi-weekly/weekly pull-ups with launch team key leads, and we run down the task list and update towards completion. These meetings have kept everyone on track and made sure there is accountability on all launch areas. It also helps that we keep these pull-ups as no bs. We discuss the tasks, blockers, and how to get everything needed for launch off the ground.
Additionally, leadership support has been immensely helpful from our product line owner to our VPs, and founders.
I've gotten questions around the processes for product launches during my interviews. What do you look for in an answer in terms of product launch process or best practices?
Hi @Ashley Klepach, I look for a couple of things an answer.
A few questions I'm curious about are:
I believe product marketers are responsible for the following areas:
So, I generally want a candidate to touch on different aspects of the above points when discussing launches (pre-launch, launch, post-launch). It shows me they understand the critical central and strategic role product marketing plays.
Hey Alex. Thanks for making time to answer our Qs. What are some must-have products/tools to successfully manage and collaborate on product launches with cross-functional teams?
Hi @Ruchi Tandon, here are some of my favorite tools -
I've been thinking a lot about pre-launch marketing strategies lately. What are your absolute favorite ways to generate pre-launch buzz for a product? I'd also love to know about some ways to build virality into the product itself so people talk about it on social media organically.
Hi Alex! Can you share a little about how you chose your marketing automation software platform? What were your considerations as an enterprise company? Caroline