Sean Lauer

Before launching a product, it's important to conduct thorough testing and validation. Gathering feedback from the target audience can reveal valuable insights that can be used to improve the product. When collecting feedback, focus on product functionality, overall experience, and perceived value. * Closed alpha or beta tests with a select group of trusted customers or partners can uncover bugs, usability issues, or potential enhancements. It's important to include participants with a diverse range of user personas to capture different use cases. * Conducting pilot programs or limited releases can provide insights into longer-term product use and value. This involves allowing potential customers to use the product in real-world scenarios, often at a reduced price or for free. It's important to gather feedback not only on technical aspects, but also on users' understanding and perception of the product's value proposition. This information can inform marketing and sales strategies. Maintaining open communication channels with participants, acknowledging feedback, and demonstrating responsiveness can help build trust and transform early testers into product champions upon launch.

There's nothing that says gathering intel in standard ways isn't ethical or fair. There are definitely some tactics that might straddle the line and a few that go way over the line that should obviously be avoided. I would rely on approaches that are very common, ethical, and effective: * Win/loss interviews * Seller interviews * Analyst inquiries * Analyst category/industry analyses * Investor resources * Using competitor products (if possible) * Competitor websites * Competitor community forums * Industry community forums * Social media * YouTube * Media reviews This is just a start, but there are many ways to gather intel that will work no matter your product. Also, check out a product like Crayon that will help you supercharge your efforts if you have limited capacity.

When entering a competitive market, it's crucial to carefully evaluate your launch messaging to ensure maximum impact. There are three key factors to consider: 1. Clarity and relevance - your message must be clear and address the primary pain points of your target audience. Avoid jargon and buzzwords that may confuse your value proposition. 2. Differentiation - it's important to clearly articulate what sets your product apart from your competitors, highlighting unique features or benefits. 3. Resonance and memorability - your message should emotionally connect with your audience and be memorable, leveraging relatable stories or scenarios. By effectively incorporating these three factors, you can increase your product's visibility and desirability in an already crowded market.

A competitor is anything that can be substituted for the value that your product offers. Sometimes, that's a product with a very similar feature set. Sometimes, it's a product that is designed for a different purpose, but people are using it (poorly) to solve for your product's value prop. And in some cases, a competitor may be nothing at all—the status quo. When you're trying to sell a product to customers that's in a new category, requires a new skill set, or is rooted in people doing things differently, it's easy for a customer to stick with the status quo. It's also something that's much more common in today's market with companies really tightening the purse strings when it comes to their tech stacks. The status quo is often the cheapest alternative, especially if a customer doesn't see the potential business impact/ROI of your product. 

The most important resource for competitive positioning is battle cards. It's the best summary and most actionable document (or group of documents) that can drive impact quickly. Some important components of battle cards are: * Top competitor profiles (firmographics) * Quick dismiss responses to common objections about your product vs the specific competitor * Wedge questions to de-position each competitor * Recent news so sellers can stay up to date Beyond those core components, teams might also find it valuable to include other information in battlecards like: * Competitor narratives * Links to competitive materials * Pricing and packaging comparison * Competitive demos * Win/loss analyses Other documents that can be helpful in the sales process are: * One pagers that are specific to each competitor and why customers should choose you * Longer-form competitive narrative vs a specific competitor (or competitors) that allows for more of an in-dpeth positioning story * Quarterly (or some other pre-determined frequency) executive summaries to inform executive leadership about the competitive landscape and allow them to make better decisions At the end of the day, it's up to PMM to determine who their audience for competitive intel is and what resources are most valuable and effective for them. 

During a product launch, it's common for certain areas to be overlooked. Below are key areas that might be neglected and the reasons for their oversight: * Customer education: It's easy to assume that a good product is intuitive, but providing educational resources like tutorials, webinars, and documentation can ease adoption and reduce churn. * Sales enablement: Product teams might assume that a great product will sell itself, but sales teams need materials, training, and tools to effectively communicate the product's value proposition to potential clients. * Internal alignment: Departments can sometimes operate in silos, but ensuring that all teams are aligned on messaging and objectives is crucial for a coherent market entry. * Feedback mechanisms: Post-launch plans might be focused on scale and expansion, but early adopters provide invaluable feedback. Mechanisms to gather, analyze, and act on this feedback can drive product improvements. * Post-launch support: The emphasis might be heavily placed on acquisition rather than retention, but support, especially post-launch, is vital to resolve issues, enhance user experience, and reduce churn. * Performance analysis: The focus might be overly placed on pre-launch activities vs post-launch measurement, but post-launch performance analysis is vital to critically evaluating the success of a product launch. * Iterative planning: The launch might be viewed as the "end" rather than a phase in the product's lifecycle, but plans for iterating based on real-world feedback can lead to more rapid improvements and adaptations. * Market education: If a product is novel or introduces new concepts, there might be an assumption that the market recognizes its value immediately. In such cases, educating the market about the problem itself before positioning the product as a solution is crucial. These oversights can be due to resource constraints, historical biases, or underestimating the importance of these areas in the midst of other pressing launch activities. It's essential to approach launches holistically and give crucial yet sometimes overlooked areas due attention.

That's definitely a challenge! There are a few things you could try to gain more insights: 1. Utilize your sales team to ask about a competitor in discussions with prospects and customers. 2. Hire a third party to do win/loss interviews with prospects/customers. They may be able to get more information that a salesperson might not be able to obtain. 3. Hire a secret shopper. I realize this can be controversial, but there are firms out there that will do this for you. It can be a great way to uncover insights about the competition. Or... you could just call yourself and ask if they sell it! Why not?

One of the key things to consider with any information provided to a sales team is making sure you answer two questions: * Why does it matter? * What should they do with it? When it comes to competitive intel, keep in mind the following factors to deliver value to sales: * Timeliness * Impact * Action Is the intel you are providing timely? Is it new and relevant or is it old news? If it's old news and most sellers are already aware, but you still think it's valuable, think about just adding it to background material as part of a more comprehensive update. Emphasize the intel that's going to matter most. Is it impactful? Is it something that will help win more deals or are you just adding more noise to their day-to-day? Sellers get a ton of information thrown at them and you need to make sure what you're sharing is worth their while. Make sure the intel you prioritize is something that can make them better sellers. Is it actionable? Is the intel you're sharing something that a seller can use in their sales motion to win more deals or is it just something that's nice for them to know? If it's actionable, make sure it's clear how they should use it. If it's not actionable, maybe just add it to background material as part of a more comprehensive update. 

Ideally, your narrative should actually be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to differentiation. Features can easily be copied. As this question states, it often leads to products being essentially the same across a competitive set. The components of your narrative—the story and the reason why your product exists—can be the difference maker in conversations with prospects. What does your product stand for? What is the driving force behind your product strategy and the value you want to create for users/customers? You may have the same features as a competitor, but my guess is you don't have the same vision for solving your customers' problems. When that vision resonates with more customers, you'll find that it can make the difference between winning and losing. 

Teams should be tracking win/loss rates vs specific competitors. This information is most easily gathered and tracked via the sales team (or possibly solutions eng) and stored in a system of record like Salesforce. Additional detail around win/loss reasons when in a competitive situation is key to measuring success. It's not perfect data and should be viewed through a lens of subjectivity. Is there a product gap vs a competitor that led to a win or loss? Was it a pricing decision? Was the seller able to position your product in a way that closed the deal? If PMM and product are prioritizing competitive intel and strategy (this does NOT mean just doing everything that your customers are doing), then you should see improving win/loss rates.