What are the effective strategies for feature launches in app
When you're launching a new feature in an existing app, you clarify your goals for the launch. Some example goals could be:
To validate that the new feature fully solves the "user problem" it was designed to solve
To learn about demand for the new feature
To test relevance of the feature to particular sub-audiences
To improve your product's key metrics overall (increase engagement, improve retention).
To resurrect churned users
To convert more users from free to paid
To grow your product's users to appeal to a new segment
Launch goals #1-3 are "learning" goals that will lead to feature improvements and future updates. These types of launches should be done quietly, without any marketing to your existing audience, in order to get the cleanest data on user behavior and usability. This is often called a "soft launch."
Launch goals #4-7 are more about fully serving your customers or changing the trajectory of your business with your new feature. In these cases, you've hopefully already learned quite a bit from qualitative research, betas, or prior "soft launches," and so you have confidence that your feature really meets the user need. These types of feature launches are going to be similar to full product launches in that you need to drive awareness with the target audience, and potentially operate thoughtfully designed "consideration," "installation," and "purchase" funnels in order to achieve success. The good news is by deploying your new feature into an existing product you already have an audience and established UI channels that can be used for these funnels. So the launch should be simpler and the learning faster than it would be for a new product.
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