What's an example of a multi-year, transformative product launch, and when should a company think about having one?

A tech company should always think about having transformative bets. These big bets are what will create a diversified company with multiple things they are good at in order to continue to grow in size and scale. Multiple bets are nice, but many companies can't afford them. So shoring up the right market intelligence to predict the shfits will be key to ensure resourcing to execute well on a bet.

It's in times like these where product marketing in the research and priortization phase can really prove value and worth. The bets don't always work out, but have a practice of big bets in your roadmaps can increase the critical thinking and analysis of your product and get you out of the feature launch trap of a product in market for years. 

These are the the three main reasons why I've seen companies make really big bets:

Competition

Unfortunately, most companies take on big bets when a competitor has come in and redefined a space and forces a loss of customers or revenue. Sometimes there's no way to avoid this because of the amount of resources needed to pivot makes leadership wait for a real threat before they move. 

Diversification
The company simply wants another line of business to ensure diversification around their core business. 

Change in customer behaviors

Consumer behavior is changing so fast that a major shift is needed in order to anticipate where the consumer will go.  

All three of these should be line items in your market intelligence plans on how you're approaching the market and what your product team will need to do to stay relevant and maintain a strong product. 

This is just timely, but we just shipped Shopify Editions. One thing that became clear for the Shopify organization is that with all of the product launches across different teams, you have to be sure to keep up with all of them—especially the ones that are rolling out on an ongoing basis. When a company is rapidly growing in their offerings, it’s a good time to consider a new approach to the way you launch products. Having a central location for everything has brought a new level of awareness to all of our stakeholders: customers, partners, and employees included. Tools like Editions and other multi-year launch events are really effective ways to communicate everything consistently and cohesively, painting a story for all of your stakeholders to both look forward to and revisit whenever they’d like.