Sanat Mohanty

This is where launch tiering comes into play. To distinguish between different types of launches, you adopt the following steps: 1. Decide your launch goal (in decreasing order of impact) * Net New Revenue * Expansion Revenue * Churn Reduction * Adoption * Brand Awareness 2. Then you can use the 3 point Likert scale scoring method to land on a launch tier for the product. You can refer to this link: https://coda.io/@jasmine/intercoms-announcement-template/tiers-goals-worksheet-12 3. Based on the launch tier, decide on the types of activities you would want to include in your launch announcement campaign. Refer to the link here: https://coda.io/@jasmine/intercoms-announcement-template/announcement-tactics-worksheet-20

In my experience, there are three big challenges for any given product launch: 1. Failure to get a buy-in from leadership and functional heads - Product marketing owns outcomes without owning dedicated teams. Hence a PMM need to borrow bandwidth from other functions like Demand Gen, Social, Product etc for executing a launch. In order to smooth ride this, PMMs need to provide visibility & get buy-in from functional heads on launch project early on - else risk failure. 2. Failure to align functional POCs on launch deliverables - At any given time, functions like - Product, Social, Demand-Gen, Biz-Dev etc would be working on multiple projects, out of which product launch would be one. However for PMMs, a product launch would be a top KRA. Without aligning functional POCs on launch deliverables & timelines, it is impossible to get a product launch into their top KRA, let alone secure their bandwidth. 3. Failure to stay on top of things during launch prep - During launch prep, PMMs often work in smaller cross-functional pods to ship deliverables. This could easily spiral into 10-20 separate chat threads with key messages, files, push-backs etc sprinkled across the chat history. In other words, if PMM doesn't devise a mechanism to stay on top of conversations, then it's very difficult to project manage a launch - with things frequently falling through the cracks. These are some of the red-flags that a PMM needs to solve early on during a product launch.

Till very recently we used to depend on: * Microsoft Teams: For cross-functional communication. We create multiple groups on teams: * with senior leadership for approvals, * with functional heads for alignment, * with cross-functional team members for preparing the deliverables * Google Docs: For knowledge management such as sharing briefs, product docs etc. * Google Sheets: For basic project managing launch communications But now I’m building a Notion based Asana alternative for PMMs to integrate communication, knowledge management and project management for a product launch at one place. Here’s why: While the above contraption is simple to use, it is not optimized to keep aync communication and deliverables managed at a single place. First, our async communication is scattered across - MS Team chat groups, Google Doc comments and status updates in Google sheet. For example - a task status update in G-Sheet is not auto-captured across multiple chat groups on MS Teams (while yes ! you can use Zapier to set up an automation for that. It is an overkill & super-expensive to manage such micro-communications) Second, our knowledge docs are scattered across folders, multiple versions & share settings. We often find while the functional teams may be working on the latest version of a doc in one chat group, the leadership might be accessing the older version on a different chat thread. This knowledge asymmetry often leads to push back at the time of final approval. Third, managing multiple systems means it’s very difficult to run complex product launches in bigger teams, typically with 10-15+ team members across Product, Sales, Marketing, Design & Customer Success. Given these constraints, I’m building Launchboard - An automated Notion workspace for PMMs to project manage cross-functional communication, knowledge docs and project delivery, from a single place.

Great question ! Here's a framework, from an earlier stint, while working in Google: We ran cross-team alignment building more as a program management exercise and not as a simple communication formality. This is how we went about it: For any cross functional project (not just launch), we built alignment across four information categories - 1. Context Sharing a.k.a a preliminary call / meeting where project owner (in your case, PMM) shares adequate context with channel owners, so that they are on the same page with us. At this stage, PMM should share visibility on: * Launch goals * Campaign plan * Timelines * High level overview of deliverables per channel * Launch FAQ doc - campaign narrative, links to product / feature doc * Leadership approvals This puts channel owners in your shoes & you, in theirs. 2. Input Gather a.k.a call out inputs needed from channel owners (such as feedback on messaging, inputs on campaign plan etc). It has two benefits - * It gets them invested into your launch project * You can incorporate their feedback, course correct and avoid push-backs at a later stage. 3. Projects a.k.a launch campaign related deliverables that are to be jointly driven by channel owners & you. Get feedback on key tasks & due dates. 4. Dependency & Call Outs a.k.a probe channel owners for dependencies & constraints that might be a blocker for project deliverables. This could include items such as: * Bandwidth shortage * Other high priority projects running in parallel * Budget approvals * Leadership approvals etc. Once you align across these four information categories (also called Alignment Types) - you could nudge the channel owner to assign bandwidth a priority level to the overall launch project. This is when channel owners would include it as part of their project backlog & start active work needed to ship launch deliverables on time. Here’s a quick video tutorial on the framework: (This tutorial is a part of a Launchboard Demo) Launchboard is a Notion based virtual assistant for product marketers to project manage cross-functional launches from a single dashboard.

Here’s a framework to build a cadence for gathering stakeholder feedback during launch prep - 1. Build some basic assets for team members to align on, such as: * Launch FAQ: A 2-3 page doc on key facts around the launch * Deck version of the FAQ doc: To get a buy in from business leadership, so that functional leaders can be looped in. 2. Set up one on one alignment calls (over zoom / MS Teams) with functional leaders (like heads of consumer marketing, branding, design etc.): * Get their input & feedback on the launch plan, deliverables & timelines. * Goal is to enroll them as your sponsor, so that you get the required from functional team members. * Nudge the functional head to nominate a POC from his / her team. 3. Set up a call with functional head, functional POC and other team members for a detailed alignment call: Have a discussion on four key areas: * Context Sharing a.k.a a preliminary call / meeting where PMM shares adequate context with team members, so that they are on the same page with us. * Input Gather a.k.a call out inputs needed from functional team members (such as feedback on messaging, inputs on campaign plan etc). It has two benefits - * It gets them invested into your launch project * You can incorporate their feedback, course correct and avoid push-backs at a later stage. * Projects a.k.a launch campaign related deliverables that are to be jointly driven by functional teams & you. Get feedback on key tasks & due dates. * Dependency & Call Outs a.k.a probe channel owners for dependencies & constraints that might be a blocker for project deliverables. This could include items such as: * Bandwidth shortage * Other high priority projects running in parallel * Budget approvals 4. Once you align across these four key areas (also called Alignment Types) - you could set up a launch prep kick off call with all functional heads, function wise POCs and other team members. 5. Post this kick off call - you can set up: * Daily standup with your pod members ( smaller groups who are actually working on the deliverables) * Bi-weekly standups with POC to remove blockers * Weekly / Bi-monthly meetings with functional heads to call out issues where leadership intervention is needed for off-track projects. To achieve this goal, I’m building a **Notion based Asana alternative for PMMs to help them run such cross-functional cadence for launch prep, from a single dashboard. You can check quick tutorials here & here**