The Strategic Product Launch Playbook
By: Nima Torabi
Tags: Launch, Growth, Startup, Marketing, Product Management

Step 1: Considerations Before Launching a Product

Use problem statements as a guiding star

Every successful product aims to solve a problem and each product will have a unique problem statement. The problem statement is a clear and concise description of the problem and fills in the blank between what should be happening (situation to-be) and what is actually happening (situation as-is). The problem statement is something that you can refer to throughout a product’s journey starting with the design and development all the way to introducing it to the market.

Make sure you spend time with all your team members to outline the best problem statements that everyone is committed to. This will help your team focus, stay on track, and ground you and your team in goal setting, strategies, planning, execution, and assessment of the product launch plan. A simple formula to a problem statement could be the following:

‘X target users’ need a way to do ‘Y-needs’ shown by the ‘Z-insight’

For Uber, that may look something like this:

‘San Francisco commuters’ — need a way to ‘get from point A to point B’ because ‘taxi cabs are too scarce to hail and too slow to respond’.

Target the right audience

For successful product development and launch, you need to discover your target customers, understand their needs, and know how to communicate with them. Go beyond the run of the mill demographics and personas and use the jobs-to-be-done framework by Clayton Christensen, as a compass to hone in on your target market and their needs. Follow these steps to define your target market, craft the right messaging, and connect with customers on a deeper level:

Identify a job-to-be-done as an action verb followed by the object of the action and the clarifying context. For iPod, that may be listen to music while working out. Ask your customers questions to gain insights. With the iPod, you might ask, when listening to music while working out, how do you struggle to get the job done? For example, they may have difficulty running while carrying a bulky Walkman or battle boredom with the same 12 songs playing on the CD.

For iPod, that may be listen to music while working out. Ask your customers questions to gain insights. With the iPod, you might ask, when listening to music while working out, how do you struggle to get the job done? For example, they may have difficulty running while carrying a bulky Walkman or battle boredom with the same 12 songs playing on the CD. Go beyond the functional jobs-to-be-done and determine if the customer has emotional or social jobs-to-be-done as well . Ask questions like, how do you want to achieve your workouts? The customer may respond with an insight like they want to feel motivated to push themselves harder.

. Ask questions like, how do you want to achieve your workouts? The customer may respond with an insight like they want to feel motivated to push themselves harder. Focus on how to message your product as solving the customer’s job. To do this, it’s important you don’t focus messaging on the features of your product and instead use the jobs-to-be-done lens to focus on your product’s position in the customers’ minds. When Apple first released the iPod, they used the catchphrase, “1,000 songs in your pocket.” They did not focus messaging around a feature, such as the device’s ability to store five gigabytes of music. Instead, they translated the storage size into the number of songs stored. A message that resonated with the customers’ job described earlier.

Validate your product market fit

Product market fit will drive the success of your offering. Test your customers’ motivations, desires, needs, and figure out how to communicate with them before launching a product.

A great way to validate your product market fit prior to launch is to create a landing page. Develop a page with a single and focused call to action. Your call to action may be a web form to collect data, like names and email addresses, or it may be a simple button you press to purchase something.

Test multiple variations of the landing page and see what sticks with users (A/B testing) while gathering data and customer feedback along the way. Don’t wait until the product launch date to validate your product/market fit. This will help you and your team to go beyond opinions and identify what strategies and messages resonate with your customers because, in the end, data always beats opinions.

Track performance with metrics

A product leader can get fixated on daily tasks and lose sight of what’s really important — achieving business goals. If product teams do not identify goals early on and set metrics for what success looks like, product launches may fail. Product teams need to develop product launch goals. Below are some guidelines:

Create a product launch goal statement. The statement could take the form of: we are launching this product to X, Y, and Z. For example, “we’re launching the widget product to increase awareness, engagement, and conversion of new customers.” Try to gather input from team members to ensure you strike the right balance of high-level details and simplicity.

The statement could take the form of: we are launching this product to X, Y, and Z. For example, “we’re launching the widget product to increase awareness, engagement, and conversion of new customers.” Try to gather input from team members to ensure you strike the right balance of high-level details and simplicity. Identify goals associated with why you are launching the product . Cross-check goals with the executives and other functional teams. An example of goals could be: “an increase in revenue or margin, establishing a foothold in a new market segment to land new clients.”

. Cross-check goals with the executives and other functional teams. An example of goals could be: “an increase in revenue or margin, establishing a foothold in a new market segment to land new clients.” Translate goals into traceable metrics. Use SMART criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) in developing targets for your goals, for example, “to reach $3.2 million in revenue.”

Using this method as your guideline, you and your team will be able to later judge whether or not the goals were accomplished. It will also help you to identify where resources are needed and help you and your team deliver on the expectations.

The goal-setting phase may require a lot of strategic analysis and planning but will keep your team focused on the purpose of the product launch, align activities based on success metrics and keep everyone motivated to really impress your customers.

Monitor and benchmark the competition

Always be conducting a competitive analysis. Only then will you understand what makes your product unique and useful to your target market. Let’s take a look at the three steps you can take to conduct your own analysis and create a strategy to take on your competitors.

Brainstorm a full list of your competitors. Be comprehensive and think of direct and indirect (substitute) competition. So if you are launching a new fitness watch, search for related keywords, such as activity tracker, exercise monitor band or pedometer. Or if you are selling an electric toothbrush, go beyond just researching other electric toothbrushes and think about regular toothbrushes, or even floss.

Be comprehensive and think of direct and indirect (substitute) competition. So if you are launching a new fitness watch, search for related keywords, such as activity tracker, exercise monitor band or pedometer. Or if you are selling an electric toothbrush, go beyond just researching other electric toothbrushes and think about regular toothbrushes, or even floss. Understand competitors’ offerings. Evaluate their offerings comparing them to your own. Assess their website, follow them on social media, and sign up for their newsletters. Create a document, such as this, to capture your research

Evaluate their offerings comparing them to your own. Assess their website, follow them on social media, and sign up for their newsletters. Create a document, such as this, to capture your research SWOT it out! Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor and potential opportunities and threats you might have against them. Your competitive advantage should be unique and appeal to your target customer.

Take a step back and talk out your research with all of your team. It will take time, but landing on your competitive advantage will help drive your product’s messaging by relying on what makes you different (USP).