AMA: Salesloft Director of Product Marketing, Holly Xiao on Product Launches

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to introducing new features. The most effective strategy depends on the nature of the feature and how it integrates with the rest of your product. That said, I’ve found that a combination of four tactics typically works well: 1. In-App Announcements: This is a no-brainer. These ensure that users are immediately aware of new features the next time they log in. Pop-ups or banners can highlight key benefits and encourage users to explore the update. However, it’s important to think through where the pop-ups will be the least disruptive. What you don’t want is to trigger a popup when someone is mid-flow on something. 2. Guided Tours: Interactive walkthroughs can help users understand how to use the new feature effectively. By showing them step-by-step, you reduce the learning curve and are more likely to increase adoption. 3. Tooltips: Subtle hints and highlights within the UI are a great way to guide users in real time as they explore the new features. This helps make the new feature intuitive to discover and use. Usually, you’ll need to partner with your Product team to scope and build these in as part of the new features. 4. Videos: Embedding short videos (demos & marketing) within the product UI provides a dynamic and engaging way for users to see the new feature in action. Videos are also great if your new feature is an add-on or upsell. I've seen companies get better engagement and adoption when they put a video in place of where customers see/experience new features they don't have yet. Combining some form of these strategies ensures that users are informed, supported, and encouraged to engage with new features in a way that feels somewhat natural and beneficial. Another thing to remember is to make sure the feature you're promoting is relevant to the audience. If you serve multiple audiences, segment the in-app messages and experiences to those who will benefit from it.

Teasers have worked really well for me. Start running teasers on social, emails, and ads about one to three months before the launch to build anticipation. Some organizations aren't comfortable sharing sneak peaks, so figure out how much your leadership is comfortable sharing — and at what altitude. At Drift, we produced high-quality, short, hype videos as the core assets for the teasers. Post-launch day, consider following up with a larger "reveal" push to maintain momentum. The key is to create not only a single flare on launch day but also a continual drip pre- and post-launch. Some other (less common) external activities to consider: * Exclusive preview events: invite a handful of your top accounts (customers and prospects) to be the first to learn about the upcoming product and see it in action. You could also make this into a series of events in different cities. * Launch day event: this can be virtual or in-person. The goal is to make it interactive and informative for customers and prospects. * Offers: these could be time-boxed discounts for those who buy your new product in the next X days. This requires sales and finance buy-in. * Roadshows: after the launch, you can take a few executives on the road to meet with customers and prospects and discuss the new product, roadmap, and vision. * Partner/influencer marketing: tap into your partners' and influencers’ networks, resources, and credibility to boost your product launch strategy.

Product marketing should be involved in the launch process as early as possible. In an ideal world, we’re involved before product development even starts to align on the perception the business wants to drive in the market and ensure that there’s a compelling, differentiated narrative. This also gives you the opportunity to do market research, customer interviews, and competitive analysis to help shape the product’s features/scope and positioning. However, that’s not always the case, and it really depends on the maturity of the wider business. So if you find yourself getting pulled in later, you’d still want to work with Product to define the go-to-market strategy, messaging, and positioning. You just might have a tighter turnaround time or need to do more internal change management. I firmly believe that PMMs are the quarterbacks of a product launch, so you’re always the SME and strategic driver of the launch. In that sense, you’re involved from the beginning to post-launch activities such as retros, metrics, and product improvements. The challenges of launches really differ from company to company. But generally, the most frequent challenges I’ve seen are around: * Cross-functional alignment and coordination: how do we bring everyone along as early as possible? How do we keep everyone informed on updates? How do we problem-solve as a group without having too many cooks in the kitchen? * Internal enablement: How do we ensure that teams are all trained before launch? How do we ensure that GTM teams aren’t overwhelmed? How do we ensure that Sales and CS have ample time to execute strategies post-enablement? The best tools I’ve used for launches are Asana for project management, Respondent.io for persona interviews, and Productboard for visibility into customer feedback & roadmaps.

When I reflect on my most successful launches, a few key elements stand out: * Internal activation: This often gets overlooked because we tend to focus on the external splash. However, internal activation is SO crucial. This internal momentum builds excitement and ownership, fosters cross-functional collaboration, and addresses potential issues early, amplifying the impact of your external marketing efforts. When your internal teams understand the new product's value and are equipped with the right tools and knowledge, they can communicate its benefits confidently and consistently to customers. * Internal alignment and buy-in: We made sure every internal stakeholder—from sales and customer support to product and marketing—understood the why, what, and how. We answered questions like: What are we launching? Why is it important? What’s the value to our customers and business? How does it work? How will customers use it? Who will have access? We held comprehensive training sessions, created detailed launch kits, and ensured alignment on messaging and goals. This buy-in was critical for confident and consistent communication of the product’s benefits to customers. * Cross-functional collaboration: Trust and collaboration are essential for smooth launches. My most successful launches have been those where we established cross-functional launch teams that left egos at the door, encouraged healthy conflict, and drove accountability. This collaborative culture makes launches easier to manage and more effective in achieving desired results. * Messaging: Getting the messaging right is pivotal. This starts with thorough market interviews and validation. In-depth interviews with your target audience help uncover their pain points, preferences, and the language they use. This direct feedback is invaluable for crafting messages that resonate and communicate the unique value proposition effectively. Grounding your messaging in real customer insights ensures it is relevant, compelling, and poised to drive engagement and adoption.

This is tough, but it really starts with earning the trust and respect of your key stakeholders. Demonstrate your team's value and be a thought leader in those conversations to earn a seat at the table. Here are some tactical things you can do to show you’re strategic and future-looking: 1. Deep market insights: Invest in comprehensive market research to understand industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer needs. Use these insights to inform not just product launches, but also broader company strategies and product roadmaps. My team and I have consolidated market and customer insights into annual/bi-annual “state of the union” reports to inform product and GTM strategies. 2. Thought leadership: Position the Product Marketing team as thought leaders both internally and externally. Contribute to industry conversations through webinars, whitepapers, and speaking engagements. Internally, lead strategic planning sessions and provide insights that shape company direction. 3. Customer-centric Focus: Advocate for the customer's voice within the organization. Conduct ongoing customer interviews, surveys, and feedback loops to ensure product development aligns with customer needs and market demand. 4. Strategic positioning: Position yourself (and your team) as a central voice in shaping the company's overall value proposition and messaging. Ensure that your team is involved in early-stage product development discussions to influence product direction based on market and customer insights. This will require work to help Product leaders understand the value you and your team can bring, and why it's important to bring you in early. 5. Cross-functional relationships: Relationships are so critical. Foster strong partnerships with other departments such as Product Management, Sales, Customer Success, and Executive Leadership. 1:1 time is so important to build relationships, especially in this digital-first world. And I get it - we all hate back-to-back meeting days. But relationships are worth the time investment. Just make sure you show up with an agenda and conversation topics, so you’re not wasting their time. 

I don’t think product launches should be directly tied to revenue targets, especially if the product doesn’t have its own SKU. Product launches are all about making a big splash with something new. They focus on introducing a new product or a significant update to the market. And the primary goals for launches are immediate market penetration, driving adoption, and generating sales momentum (e.g pipeline). If your organization is a big proponent of attaching revenue targets to launches, I would advocate for it to be a shared KPI across the GTM teams. PMM (and marketing) shouldn’t get the blame if the organization doesn’t hit revenue targets since it’s not something that’s directly in our control. However, you can still be the strategic DRI in helping the business get there. So it’s critical that you’re bringing leaders from sales, customer success, marketing, revenue operations, and product together to align on launch objectives and KPIs. This should help you get the right benchmarks and historical data to align the group on what’s realistic. Plus, you'll have buy-in from XFN leaders like Sales so that if you're not hitting revenue targets, you can easily initiate a conversation about why that's the case and pull the right levers to get things on track.

Key considerations include tracking important metrics, maintaining regular communication with relevant teams, and optimizing for adoption/impact. 1. Market response: Evaluate the market’s response to the launch. Monitor social media, press coverage, and industry reviews to gauge overall sentiment and public perception. If it’s negative, understand why — and create a GTM strategy to change that perception. 2. Customer feedback: Collect and analyze feedback from customers to understand their experiences, identify any issues, and gather suggestions for improvement. Use surveys, user interviews, and support ticket analysis to gather insights. 3. User adoption monitoring: Focus on user adoption and engagement. Ensure customers are utilizing the new features and derive value from the product. Provide additional training, resources, or support if needed. 4. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and net promoter score (NPS): Track customer satisfaction and loyalty to gauge overall product reception. 5. Pipeline and revenue impact: While not the sole focus, track any immediate revenue impact, including new sales, upsells, and cross-sells driven by the launch.

This really depends on the main objectives of the launch. But here are some activities to consider: * Launch retro: These are crucial because they provide an opportunity to reflect on the entire launch process, identifying what went well and what could be improved. This will help the launch teams learn from the experiences, fostering continuous improvement and ensuring that future launches are even more successful and efficient. * Performance monitoring and analysis: Track key usage metrics such as daily active users (DAU), monthly active users (MAU), and feature usage rates to gauge product engagement. This should also include analytics on # of support tickets filed, NPS, and other indicators of the performance and reliability of the product. * Customer engagement: Provide ongoing education and resources to help users maximize the value of the product. This can include webinars, blog posts, and how-to videos. * Continuous sales and CS training: Continuously train the GTM teams on the new features, updates, and customer feedback to ensure they are well-equipped to sell the product. If they’re getting negative feedback on the new products, dig into why, tweak the messaging, and then retrain the reps. 

This will require a huge amount of cross-functional buy-in and support. Change management is hard, but it can be done. For me, it’s important to start with the why and overcommunicating to help teams understand the reasoning and how it’ll benefit them. Here’s how I’d approach the process: 1. Gather feedback from customers and internal teams: collect feedback from customers through surveys, interviews, and support interactions to understand how they perceive and use the product. At the same time, engage with your sales and support teams to gather insights from their interactions with customers. They can provide valuable information on what messaging resonates and what doesn’t. 2. Analyze the data: Analyze product usage data to see how different features are being used and which ones are driving the most value for customers. You should also keep an eye on market trends and competitor messaging to ensure your messaging remains relevant and differentiated. 3. Enablement Strategy: Bring your enablement partners along early. They can help with consistent communications and updates and lay the groundwork for what training teams will have. 4. Give internal teams a heads up: Meet with functional leaders to let them know that you’re refining the messaging and why. You should also share the milestones and timelines with them for feedback since they'll have more insights on what'd be helpful for their teams. This will help get buy-in and level-set on what they can expect from their teams. 5. Iterate Messaging: Conduct workshops with key stakeholders (product, marketing, sales, customer success) to refine and align on the latest messaging based on the feedback and data collected. Then test, test, test. This includes selecting a couple of reps to test it in the field for a period of time. 6. Update Collateral: Update all marketing and sales materials with the latest messaging. 7. Internal Training: Conduct training sessions with all relevant teams to ensure they understand and communicate the updated messaging effectively. What's worked well for me in the past is having one of the reps who tested the messaging in the field talk about why it's worked well for them. Reps don't want to hear a PMM talk at them and tell them what to do. Instead, they want to hear it directly from another rep or a sales leader. 8. Roll out, monitor, and adjust: Establish a continuous feedback loop to monitor how well the new messaging is being adopted and its impact. Be ready to make further adjustments as needed.

Each organization thinks about this differently, and both approaches have pros and cons. Three things to think about here: market impact, efficiency/scalability impact, efficiency/scalability, and customer experience. Typically, I advocate for monthly releases (unless you’re an early-stage startup). Bundling releases together can help drive: * Market impact: Larger, more significant launches can create more buzz and media coverage, generating greater market awareness and excitement. * Efficiency: Coordinating marketing, sales, and support efforts for a single, comprehensive launch can be more resource-efficient. Teams can focus their efforts on a few key moments throughout the year. * Customer experience: Customers receive a more substantial update with multiple new features at once, which can be more compelling and show a significant leap in product value. Here are some questions to ask yourself to make the decision: * Customer needs and expectations: How quickly do your customers expect new features or improvements? Are they willing to wait for bundled updates, or do they prefer immediate access to new capabilities? * Competitive landscape: How quickly are your competitors releasing new features? If the market moves fast, quicker, incremental releases might be necessary to stay competitive. * Product complexity: Is your product complex with interdependent features that benefit from being released together? Or can features be independently launched without causing confusion or integration issues? * Internal resources and capabilities: Does your team have the capacity to support continuous delivery? Do you have the resources to handle frequent launches in terms of marketing, sales training, and customer support? * Strategic goals: What are your company’s strategic goals? Are you aiming for rapid market penetration, or is the focus on building a robust, stable product with periodic major improvements? In terms of buy-in from Product - coming to the table with data and insights is usually effective. Share historical performance, customer feedback, and competitive analysis to justify the strategy.

This depends on your launch goals and the target audience. Start by understanding your target audience. Analyze their behavior and content preferences with surveys, social media insights, and web analytics. Find out how they learn about similar products to yours. Do you do it through forums, tradeshows, networking events, etc? Next, define your launch goals. If your goal is to create widespread awareness, broad-reaching channels like social media ads, PR, and influencer marketing might be effective. Consider channels that allow for interactive content, such as webinars, live demos, and email marketing for deeper engagement. To drive conversions, use channels with proven ROI, like email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), and retargeting. Budget and resources will also be important factors in your channel strategy. However, if you have data on how your current channels are performing, that could also help you prioritize which channels to invest in.

This is such a good question. Product readiness is a critical factor that significantly affects the success of a product launch. But it’s a multi-faceted aspect that means different things to different people. On top of that, every company has a different tolerance level for what they’re willing to go to market with. Some companies launch products that they haven't even started building yet (and might never build), while others only launch GA products. I personally believe that there’s a happy middle ground, and the pendulum swings depending on the market and business needs from launch to launch. But typically, I'm open to launching products/features that PMs are confident we'll GA within a couple of months. At the end of the day, what you don’t want are "smoke and mirrors" and the loss of trust from your customers. Here are some things to consider: * Alignment with market needs: a product that is well-aligned with market needs is more likely to succeed, even if it's not perfect yet. This also involves crafting a narrative that highlights the product's unique value proposition and benefits. * Customer satisfaction: first impressions matter. A fully functional product free of major bugs ensures a positive first impression. However, you can still launch with EAP and Beta products. The idea is to set that expectation for early adopters so they understand that the product they're using is still a work in progress and that they can help influence its direction. * Quality assurance and testing: even if the product is in EAP or Beta, launching a product with unresolved high-level bugs can lead to a poor user experience, negative reviews, and high churn rates. Ensuring that the product is stable and reliable is essential for building trust with customers — even if you don't have all the bells and whistles yet. * Competitive advantage: launching a ready product on time can help you seize market opportunities and gain a competitive edge. Delays due to readiness issues can result in missed opportunities and allow competitors to capture market share. * Revenue Impact: waiting to launch a feature or product until it's "ready" will likely have a revenue impact. So, there are tradeoffs to think through. * Internal readiness: ensuring that all internal teams, including sales, marketing, customer support, and legal, are prepared and aligned with the product launch is crucial. This includes training, creating support documentation, and developing sales collateral.

I’ll need more context to give you a better answer, but the launch seems to only target existing customers. Also, I’m assuming that you’re starting small with the rollout to see if there are any critical issues without impacting a large portion of your customer base. With those assumptions in mind, I’d start by setting clear expectations and goals with your leadership team. This would include answering questions like: * How are we selecting the initial users? What are the qualifications? * How are we monitoring and collecting feedback? * What are we doing with the feedback? * What do we need to achieve or see to roll out to more (or the next wave of) users? Who makes this call? * Is the goal to roll out to 100% of the customers? By when? The answers should help guide the launch strategy. Again, not knowing the details of your business and the objectives, I’d start small with the basics of: * Tiger team: Create a cross-functional tiger team that includes customer success, customer support, product, solutions consultants, value engineers, and product managers to support customers during the rollout. This group should be aligned on the launch strategy and needs to be enabled way before the rest of the org. * Email comms: Inform the selected users of the rollout. Explain the new features, how they can benefit from them, and how they can provide feedback. If you’re looking for people to volunteer to try the new product first, you can send the email to your entire customer base to see who’s interested and then create the rollout plan for who gets access, and at which phase. * In-app popup: this is another channel to let people know they either have access or can request access to the new product. * Self-serve content: Since you’ll be continuously rolling out to small groups, I’d recommend self-serve content (e.g demo videos, help center articles, guided tours, one-pagers, etc) that you can share and reshare as you roll out the product to different groups. * Office hours: You can also consider reserving an hour every week for customers to join and ask questions or get help. Something else to consider: I'd recommend a bigger customer-focused launch if the selection process is based on how many customers raise their hands in the slow rollout. You could do a webinar, in-person customer events, email campaigns, or in-app marketing.