How do you time a launch for the greatest impact?

Start by defining what you mean by impact: new user acquisition? Product adoption? Market awareness (pr coverage?).

With a clear target and success metric, tailor activities to deliver on those goals. My experience has found that PR pops when combined with a customer event or activity (user conference, live-streamed roadshow, or customer event). For customer adoption focusing on multi-channel coverage (in your product + blogs + Twitter + customer testimonials + help content).

As for setting the date -- that is often driven by either a committed event deadline or product readiness. When possible think about major external events (holidays) and big tech activities (apple launch day or FAAANG conferences)

Products are often launched on a specific day, but the work to achieve launch goals is usually an ongoing effort.

For your launch to be a success, ideally you have completed a customer pilot so you have success stories for press; you've built a robust demo org for your sales teams so they can show customers the product; and you've spent time conducting internal and external research to make sure your message resonates. 

But we don't live in an ideal world :) Other factors that may impact the timing of your launch for a big impact: 

• What's happening in the market that you can take advantage of? I.e. are there industry events, global trends, etc. that you can use as momentum for your launch?
• What events or opportunities are happening internally that make a specific launch timing ideal? Do you have an annual conference? A new campaign launching?

Impact means something different for every launch and these KPIs/success criteria should be defined in your product launch brief. For example, does impact mean customer adoption, customer satisfaction, press coverage, etc.

At a high-level there are a few tactics you can deploy when planning for the greatest impact:

• Bundling of features: Is there an opportunity to hold back a release of a product to bundle with several other new features that allows you create a bigger story and launch a more complete product?

• Customer testimonials: Can you leverage customer case studies and quotes with quantifiable impact from your beta phase that you can use in your launch content?

• Events: Can you time this release alongside other company events (user conferences) or major holidays.

• Partnerships: Is there an opportunity to jointly announce something through a partner to double the exposure?

• Product readiness: Ensure that your product is sufficiently developed and tested before the launch. Aim for a stable and polished version that meets the desired quality standards. Rushing a premature launch may lead to a negative user experience and hinder the potential impact.

• Competitive landscape: Analyze your competitors' product release schedules to avoid launching too close to their major releases. Launching in a less cluttered environment, where your product can stand out, can increase its impact. However, consider the balance between competition avoidance and maintaining a sense of urgency to capture market attention.

• Internal readiness: Ensure your organization is adequately prepared to support the launch. Coordinate with cross-functional teams, such as marketing, sales, customer support, and operations, to ensure seamless execution and a consistent customer experience.