You want a successful product launch. The big question: have you defined ‘success’?
What’s a Product Launch?
A product launch is a coordinated effort to release a product to a targeted group of customers to accelerate business goals.
A product launch isn't a date on a calendar.
Define It
The measure of a successful product launch is achieving success criteria. In the language of Objectives and Key Results, it’s the Key Results: how much and when.
The success of a product launch is defined in many ways. But it usually comes down to two things: business growth and customer retention.
Business growth focuses on increasing revenue, increasing signups, increasing market share, and entering new markets. It's about growing.
Customer retention keeps customers happy so they don’t leave. It's about retaining.
Commit to It
After defining product launch success, the next step is to get your organization to commit to that definition of success.
Different people have different definitions of launch success at different times. It becomes a moving target that’s impossible to hit.
Get stakeholders to commit to product launch key results (KRs) before committing money and resources. Establish a common definition of what good looks like across your organization first.
Measure It
Launch success isn’t achievable if it's not measurable.
Break down high-level key results into metrics that show trends.
Let’s say selling one product is progress toward a key result (revenue). You sell something, you get money. What are the metrics that show progress toward that one sale? The last step is getting money. What’s the first step?
Start with the end and work backward.
Track It
Launch success criteria that are measured can be tracked. Tracking identifies problems before they become problems. And, provides the time to make the adjustments needed to stay on the path of a successful product launch.
Identify problems earlier and they can be fixed sooner. Don’t wait until you have a problem. It may be too late.
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Dave Daniels is the founder of BrainKraft and the creator of the BrainKraft Product Launch Framework and the BrainKraft Product Launch Master Class, the best way to launch a product.