Launching a Product
Just talked to a recruiter for a software company. “You need to be able to come in and know all the tactical things that need to be done to launch a new product.” Oh, yea..I know all about that. You need to figure out what’s new in the product – not just the techie stuff but the BENEFITs – why should customers care about the new release. Then you need to line up your collateral – data sheets, white papers, web copy. You need to prepare your sales training material – and often deliver than training. You need to brief your PR team – or the press yourself if you are in a smaller company – about what’s coming. You need to start blogging about the new product, maybe reaching out through other social media outlets. Make sure everything ready ahead of schedule and out to channel partners in plenty of time.
Phew! Well that’s only the 1/2 of it. You also have to have your strategy story ready in a slide set or briefing paper – because your customers are going to ask you about how this release fits in to the overall strategy for the product. The product roadmap is a little like reading tea leaves, as you never really know if all the various pieces are going to fall into place as planned. But you need to have goals, right!
