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What is a Product Launch?
A product launch refers to a business’s planned and coordinated effort to debut a new product to the market and make that product generally available for purchase. A product launch serves many purposes for an organization— giving customers the chance to buy the new product is only one of them. It also helps an organization build anticipation for the product, gather valuable feedback from early users, and create momentum and industry recognition for the company. Read about the instant pay stub maker online for a business financial growth.
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Product Launch Checklists
Businesses need to plan their product launches strategically and well in advance of their planned launch date and promote it in social media with tools like SocialBoosting to improve the engagement and credibility. This is because a successful product launch requires the coordinated effort of many teams and departments across the company—not only product management and development, but also marketing, sales, customer support, finance, PR, etc.
Every organization’s circumstances are unique, but a typical checklist should include at least the following:
1. Make sure the team has successfully executed on the strategic vision outlined in the product roadmap
2. Test and QA the new product
(Note: Product launches for software products typically happen only after several levels of testing have been completed. Alpha testing is a product’s first round of end-to-end testing, usually done by the company’s employees. When the product clears this level, the company will send for beta testing, which involves real users but is still before the official commercial release of the product.)
3. Draft and distribute sales and marketing collateral
4. Train the sales team on the new product
5. Train the customer support department on the new product
6. Complete the product’s support and/or technical documentation
7. Let your entire organization know about the approaching product launch
8. Develop and review the customer journey to buy the product, make sure the process is as smooth as possible
9. Devise a plan for tracking user behavior and/or gathering feedback from early users
10. Decide on the metrics you and your team will use to judge the success or failure —for example, revenue or new users within a certain timeframe.
11. Conduct a product launch pre-mortem— where your product team thinks through possible problems or missteps that could hurt your product launch and prepares plans of action for each potential problem in advance.