Plan Your Next Product Launch

A product launch is a critical time for an early stage company. The success of your next product launch could determine your company’s survival. Here are the 4 stages to a successful launch.

STAGE 1: Launch Planning

Define your launch goals
Produce your product requirements document
Produce your market requirements document
Conduct market research & competitive analysis
Develop your product positioning & messaging: Determine your product name & brand
Develop Go-to-Market Plan
Set launch date & outline timeline for major deliverables
Share upcoming launch with your board and organization & get buy in

STAGE 2: Pre Launch Production

Talk to customers & collect early feedback
Kickstart PR and marketing efforts to create a buzz:
Create landing page to capture emails & gauge market interest
Create landing page for your new product
Draft your launch announcement blog post
Draft your launch announcement press release
Coordinate Distribution via wire service and your media list
Work on your personalized outreach efforts with embargoed emails to relevant journalists, media outlets and analysts
Write and schedule posts on social media for days leading up to Launch, launch day and days following launch
Draft thought leadership white papers
Draft your own case studies and use cases
Draft joint solution briefs with your business partners
Prepare your live demo
Prepare your company solution video
Train internal teams & partners

STAGE 3: Launch Day

Test everything a final time to ensure it’s working
Track bugs, complaints & any feedback
Ensure engineering resources are allocated to fix any major issues that come up
Congrats! You made it to launch day! (But there’s still more work to be done)

STAGE 4: Post Launch

Have a launch retrospective meeting - Review performance of social promotion and public relations efforts
Review how well your team felt
Find ways to improve your product: review key metrics & analytics data, review feedback collected during your launch
Review customer feedback & make improvements: send product survey to customers, schedule & conduct customer calls and interviews