My company is about to do a product re-launch. We're scaling quickly, but don't have any dedicated PMM's on our marketing team or processes in place for product launches. What's the most important thing we should keep in mind?
1. Always set a clear objective, then work backwards from there. Why is the relaunch happening? Either because the first attempts were deemed unsuccessful by some performance metric, or because there has been a pivot in the business that requires getting the product in front of a new audience (eg. change in target persona, industry, use case, business segment, pricing & packaging, etc.)
2. Build a plan against that objective. Let's say you're relaching because the first attempts did not drive enough "free trial signups" with X target audience. Great, what's the new number that the business needs, by when? Then build a time-bound launch plan needed to meet that number and timeline -- the assets that need to be created, the campaigns that need to be lined up, the product functionality that need to be confirmed, the internal/external enablement that needs to happen beforehand -- then assign out the action items.
3. To Beta or not to Beta? Launches often fall flat because of a weak hook or lack of support from existing customers. Betas are a good way of getting feedback from customers you trust (and vice versa). They are also a good way of collecting endorsements prior to general availability (full market-facing launch). Use this to your advantage if you have an existing business with customer who have shown interest.
Final note: While a PMM with experience and expertise launching products is preferred, the ability to set clear objectives and build an actionable project plan isn't a skill unique to PMMs. Focus on that piece first, then pull in the right resources internally+externally to help deliver against each action on the project plan.
When considering the key elements of a successful product launch, common themes emerge: early alignment, clarity on next steps, audience definition, and strategic go-to-market planning. Internal organization plays a pivotal role in achieving success. The fact that you don’t have a dedicated POC or a defined process is the biggest risk to this launch - assuming there are no issues with the product itself.
My response will primarily address this challenge.
Define Roles and Responsibilities: Assign a lead point of contact to organize the team, set schedules, and ensure everyone delivers on time. Lack of this key role poses the biggest risk and I recommend you escalate to Sr. Leadership this issue.
GTM Document: Create a Go-To-Market (GTM) document detailing what's launching, who it's for, any important details, and your customer communication plan. This will be your one source of truth for the launch. Anything changes, update the document.
Internal Support and Sales Training: Collaborate with relevant teams to develop training materials for internal support and sales teams.
Marketing Channel Plan: Engage teams to plan how you'll communicate the launch—via website, email, paid media, etc.
Marketing and Sales Enablement Assets: Ensure appropriate assets are in place to support marketing and sales efforts and will be delivered in time for launch date.
Stay Connected with Product Team: Maintain close contact with the product team to stay informed about progress, potential issues, delays, and any caveats.
Weekly meetings: gather the working team at least once a week to go through status updates, flag any roadblocks and to make sure everyone is in the loop. Use a dedicated slack channel to share information between weekly calls.
Good luck!
First, start with gaining a deep understanding of your target audience - what they love, what they struggle with, and how your product solves their problems uniquely. This will help you create clear and compelling positioning, messaging, and launch narrative. Secondly, establish clear comms and coordination with your teams - even without dedicated PMMs, cross-functional collaboration is key. Tag-team who is going to work with Product on launch/GA (general availability) timelines, drive marketing efforts (given limited bandwidth, pick the most impactful tactics), and sales enablement (if you have sales teams). Good luck, you got this!
Align with your executive team your number one objective, then focus on nailing the execution of that objective. Ruthlessly say no to things that will take you off course. Stellar execution can make a half-assed strategy successful. If you don't have any processes in place, build something simple, then iterative and improve it over time.
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