52 // Product Launches

Metadata

• Author: Metamuse
• Full Title: 52 // Product Launches
• URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/29786985-db18-452c-b3fb-7006e1857a34

Highlights

Marketing is Big, Like Basicly Frenzy Summary: If you execute a product eventually should mostly not surprising to you. It’s going to be news and therefore sort of surprising to a lot of the broad market. So for example, you’ve already released the product. You know that it works. And if so, you can anticipate that we’ll catch ou will stick when you eventually do your marketing lunch. Transcript: Speaker 2 I think there’s a theme here where if you execute a product lawntuali should mostly not surprising to you. It’s going to be news and therefore sort of surprising to a lot of the broad market. But you can basically understand what’s going to happen along a lot of these dimensions. So for example, you’ve already released the product. You know that it works. You should, by the way, be observing the rate that new bugs are coming in. And that should be hepefully decreasing and reaching some acceptable moderate level, because the bugs arn’t going tosuddenly stop coming the day you release, righteso, you get a anticipate that also, you are alluding to this, you can basically batatest a lot of the marketing and messaging with the press. You can alsor this, with the user s. You can say, here’s how we’re proposing to talk about the products, and see if that resinates, if they’re nodding their head up and down. And if so, you can anticipate that we’ll catch ou will stick when you eventually do your marketing lunch. I think peoplell have in this mind, as users of products, that marketing is big, like basicly frenzy, where everything’s super uncertain and everyone’s figuring stuff out, and who knows if its goin to work or not. (Time 0:12:50) You should have confidence that your product works before doing a marketing launch Product Launches

The Scale Is Bigger Summary: The scale is bigger. The individuals matter less, and it’s more these like gross trends. that’s one of the reasons why i like b to be in prosumer softwhere that certainly comes to each individual represents a larger share of your revenue. But then you’re actually much more likely to have a relationship with them. Usually they’re comfortable with saying, i hate it. And allso that. Transcript: Speaker 1 But that’s one of the reasons why i like b to be in prosumer softwhere that certainly comes to each individual represents a larger share of your revenue, so you can care about the more, if that’s the way to put it. But then you’re actually much more likely to have a relationship with them. You know, there’s folks that it, we’ve had as customers, stretching all the way back to those early days, and they’ve written him with lots of great feedback, and we’ve had our back and forth. And so then, you know, it’s pretty natural to go and say, h chi, cotour new websay. What do you think? And allso that. Usually they’re comfortable with saying, i hate it. Here’s why, which is important. And of course, you can do that with consumer stuff. Think it is harder. The scale is bigger. The individuals matter less, and it’s more these like gross trends. Speaking about numbers a little bit, i thinke another question that i like to make sure to ask on teams is, why are we doing this? Hopefully that should go with anything you ever do in a company. But i think you can take it, especially folks who have been n marketing a long time, take it as just given that you need to launch. And i actually do kind of agree with that. You can’t expect people to know about your product if you haven’t launched it, a sort of, how i’d put it, unless you have some viral growth loop thing that’s really, you know, quite remarkable. But for the most part, you got to get some real effort into getting out (Time 0:14:23)review

In consumer software each user is worth very little In business to business software you can afford to spend more time and effort on each user You can’t expect users to know about your product if you don’t launch it You can’t expect people to know about your project if you don’t promote it

I think we did a pretty good launch Summary: If we have a successful two point o launch, we’re basically telling the world, no, he a memetic. That’s gontd of my intoish about how this works. But actually, i do think there is an excellent internal reason that exists for almost any launch, which is, basely, energizing the team. Really something about seeing, again, that’s that moment. Transcript: Speaker 2 I think we did a pretty good success with our one point o meam seed, and i think if we have a successful two point o launch, we’re basically telling the world, no, he a memetic. Diana, up date here. We got e new and up dated things that we’re saying about mew that has new capabilities. We have new ways to describing yet. We have new words and phrases. And because we are the memetic source in a way now, obviously through the product itself, but also through our web sight and how we talk about it in our twitter and so forth, that will then tend to propagate through the social networks, which is where people get most of theirinformation these days. That’s gontd of my intoish about how this works. Speaker 1 Now, no other sorts of success metric, of course, can be things like new users, or putting one point o on a product convinces people who are already using it that it’s sort of stable and trustable, that stuff. But you earlier, you mentiond and a not being too external facing in your description of what a launch is. But actually, i do think there is an excellent internal reason that exists for almost any launch, which is, basely, energizing the team. Oh, yehr. Really something about seeing, again, that’s that moment. But a conversation, and again, it can be in a small circle. It can be a hacker news thread. It can be a couple of twitter threads. It can be common son product hunt. It can comments on a uto video for some person that decided to review your product, whatever it is. (Time 0:20:04)review

Shipping a Product Transcript: Speaker 1 The milestone aspect of it, i’m a huge fan of kind of milestones in general. As a life hack, is not quite it a technique one can use in your personal life and your company, in your family, which is yooit’s very easy that the days pass day by day by day, and you’re doing all the things you’re doing, your very heads down and focused on the details. And i like milestones that cause us to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Maybe birthdays, and, i don’t know, holidays served that and personal life. But in companies and products, i think that shipping a product is one of the important milestones, and something you make happen, and then you get this result that you see of what you put into the world, which is sometimes bigger and smaller. Every launch goes differently. You can’t totally predict it. There is certainly a big element of, call it luck or randomness, in terms of how it will be received. But the fact that you did this together, you pulled together, you had the singular purpose. It all comes down to kind of eighten to one day, or a couple of days. And then afterwards, you can have that shared celebration. That’s a really powerful thing. Speaker 2 And i think sometimes you got to basicly manufacture it a little bit t’. Thextent that ou’re artificially manufacturing is not going to be an external product launched, necessarily. But i think humans creator s tha this natural rhythm where every maybe every four to six years, you want a big change, like you start o ccompany, you join new company, something like that. And every two, four, six months, you ned a cut a wind, like a fuature level win. And every week or two you need a get commit level win, or whatever. And if for whatever reason you’re not getting that, which can happen if you’re working on especially these big enterprise products that basicy go on forever, like you’re never done, you got to manufacture and say, all right, this is version seven point two. (Time 0:22:46)review

Milestones in life Every four to six years you need a big change After four to six months you need a major win Every one to two weeks you need a small accomplishment---

Do You Do Releases For Internal Tools? Summary: I think a lot of the ideas and lessons from doing external pro launches can be applied internally. For example, this feeling of accomplishment and team identity can absolutely be magnified by doing an internal proc launch. Tot’s something you don’t get to until you’re medium size or larger, where you have dedicated internal teams. But how on’ y pry hit this round 50 or a hundred people or so? I always found that very focusing and rewarding to articulate to the company what you’ve done,. why and what benefits theyre gon frentyou have. Transcript: Speaker 1 And did you find being in that horizontal roll and part of a much bigger team, was that more or less or the same in terms of satisfaction for getting your work into the hands of and users? I mean, in some ways, maybe your customers, so to speak, wor internal ones, rit like building internal tools. You could still, i guess, you do releases. You’re not going to do a big press launch, necessarily. But if you have a hundred people in the company using your internal tool, you might need to do some kind of announcement, try to get people excited and get them to bridge the gap from the old world to the new. Speaker 2 Yes, that’s an interesting angle. Smecially a big fan of doing internal product releases for internal tools. Tot’s something you don’t get to until you’re medium size or larger, where you have dedicated internal teams. But how on’ y pry hit this round 50 or a hundred people or so? I think a lot of the ideas and lessons and movements from doing external pro launches can be applied internally. For example, this feeling of accomplishment and team identity can absolutely be magnified by doing an internal proc launch, which can be as simple as sending an email to tall company. Stright actualy had this really cool thing called shipped at shiped out, striped do common emal alias, where people would rite when they had release of new capability. Now, it was used both for external and internal releases, but it was especially useful for internal releases because there was no ukno blog or twitter that they could post do. And i always found that very focusing and rewarding to articulate to the company what you’ve done, why and what benefits theyre gon (Time 0:30:05)review

How to Build a Team in a High Energy, Big Company Summary: I think a lot of the ideas and lessons from doing external pro launches can be applied internally. For example, this feeling of accomplishment and team identity can absolutely be magnified by doing an internal proc launch. Stright actualy had this really cool thing called shipped at shiped out, where people would rite when they had release of new capability. It was especially useful for internal releases because there was no ukno blog or twitter that they could post do. And i always found that very focusing and rewarding to articulate to the company what you’ve done, why and what benefits theyre gon frentyou have. Transcript: Speaker 2 Yes, that’s an interesting angle. Smecially a big fan of doing internal product releases for internal tools. Tot’s something you don’t get to until you’re medium size or larger, where you have dedicated internal teams. But how on’ y pry hit this round 50 or a hundred people or so? I think a lot of the ideas and lessons and movements from doing external pro launches can be applied internally. For example, this feeling of accomplishment and team identity can absolutely be magnified by doing an internal proc launch, which can be as simple as sending an email to tall company. Stright actualy had this really cool thing called shipped at shiped out, striped do common emal alias, where people would rite when they had release of new capability. Now, it was used both for external and internal releases, but it was especially useful for internal releases because there was no ukno blog or twitter that they could post do. And i always found that very focusing and rewarding to articulate to the company what you’ve done, why and what benefits theyre gon (Time 0:30:39)review