Why Most Product Launches Fail

The Biggest Reason Product Launches Fail

And other mistakes to avoid

Since 2002, the annual Most Memorable New Product Launch survey has named the best product launches — those that consumers remember. But some of the past "winners" are more memorable for another reason — they disappeared from the market within two years.

Dr. Pepper Berries & Cream (that commercial though)
Coca-Cola® C2™ (Was it the NEW New Coke?)
Pepsi® Edge™ and Pepsi® Blue™(So good they made the list twice)
Oral-B® Brush-Ups™(With all that sugar from new soft drinks, you'd think there would be a market for oral hygiene!)

And there are many more where these came from (Yes, I'm picking on soft drinks because I'm not a fan).

My first product launch

My first product launch as a product marketer went something like this.

Product Manager: "We need a plan for launching [product name]"
Me: "Great. When is it launching?"
PM: "Next month."
Me: "😱. What information do you have about the product that I can use?"
PM: "Here's the PRD."
Me: "😠."

OK, that's not the entire e xchange, but it does capture the spirit (and the lead time) of the experience. More importantly, it highlights the biggest reason product launches fail — lack of preparation. So often the bulk of the energy, time, and resources are dedicated to planning and developing the actual product that many launches lack proper planning (or wait until it's too late to get started).

While poor planning is the most common point of failure, there are many common mistakes to avoid as you prepare for your next product launch.

TL;DR? Here's a summary:

Do your customer research. One sure way to torpedo your product launch is to misunderstand your target customer and their needs.
Sales preparation. Have you prepared Sales to know how to sell it? If you haven't it's a BIG miss.
Forgetting other internal stakeholders. Product launches cross all departments, and everyone has a role in the success of your launch.
External partners matter too. Somewhere along the line there are third parties and other teams that may be relying on a heads up and support for what's coming.
Plan for success. If you've done your homework and built the right product for the right people at the right time, be ready to deliver on the launch date.
Define the outcomes. What are the outcomes you are looking for, and how will you know if you've achieved them?

Lack of direct customer research

"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." — Albert Einstein

If you are a student of product management, you've likely heard or read that quote many times over. One sure way to torpedo your product launch is to misunderstand your target customer and their needs. Do you really understand your customer's pain (David Sandler's Pain Funnel is a good place to start)?

I'm not talking about trying to undermine or reverse the decision to build the product. Let's assume for this discussion that product management has done their research and validated that this is a product worth building for a problem that needs solving. But product marketing also needs to hear directly from customers to uncover the answer to some of the following questions in preparation for a product launch:

How do your customers describe the pain you will solve with this product? You may even discover that early customers are using the new product for reasons it was not originally intended, and that's ok — unless you don't know it!
What product(s), processes, or competitors does it replace? How did they get by without your product? Does your product make them more efficient? Does it allow them to "kill off" other products? Does it save them money? Does it make them more money? Does it allow them to differentiate over their competitors?
What would they be willing to pay for this product? Or perhaps better, what value do they associate with the product? (see above bullet)
Where do they go for information/education? This will inform how and where you promote your product. You may already know this if you have developed buyer personas, unless this new product targets a new target market.

1. There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside
2. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development
— excerpted from Steve Blank's Customer Development Manifesto

What early proof points can you can use — quotes from beta customers, early metrics of success, or even an early sense of the ROI? These early adopters aren't just proving that the product is ready for prime time from a functional or technical standpoint. They are a valuable source of early success that you can use in promotional materials. This feedback will also give you insight into what might be required to improve implementation, training, user onboarding, and customer activation.

Conversely, if your beta customers have a bad experience make sure you understand whether that was due to the product itself (it's not ready) or an indication of a poor fit. Your beta customers can give you insight into whether your understand the ideal customer profile for your new product.

Sales preparation

This is a biggie! Have you prepared Sales to know how to sell it? If you haven't it's a BIG miss. Some of the things you need to consider when preparing your sales organization:

Positioning and messaging

Make sure Sales is armed with proper positioning and messaging that communicates the unique value of your product. There are many frameworks and templates available, but I happen to like this one from Mike Troiano.

Target: The actionable universe of buyers.
Segment: The key, predisposing attribute. Within the target audience there's a segment of people with a specific attribute that makes your product or service appealing.
Brand: A name you call yourself.
Category: A competitive frame for the buyer. Think about who you are competing against, and then separate yourself from them.
Distinction: What makes you unique, setting you apart from the competition.
Proof: A perceived evidence of truth to back up your distinction.

Put it all together and you have something that looks like the following:

"For target who are segment , brand provides the category with distinction because proof."

It's critical that the entire team has a clear understanding of the product vision and a way to communicate it. Draft a positioning document or creative brief that covers the key messaging for the launch based on the product vision, the new functionality, and the value it will deliver to end users. Essentially, you need to establish:

WHO is the product for?
WHAT does it do?
WHY is it different?

Make sure Sales can also position the product against competitors, especially if it introduces new competitors into the mix.

Target audience

Does Sales know the target market and buyer persona? Is it different than the market(s) or personas they are used to prospecting? If they are used to having discussions with CFOs and directors of finance, and this new product will have them in front of CEOs or some other new role, that's a potentially big change worth understanding. Each audience will listen for and care about different value when evaluating your product. You can't sell a hospital CFO on the benefits of a new clinical workflow system that physicians love to use (Trust me, I've seen it tried.)

How does it impact existing customers?

Does the new product require an upgrade (in technology? or price?), or will your existing customers just receive it automatically? If it requires an upgrade or additional cost, why would your existing customers want to upgrade, and what does that path look like? For example, will you need to migrate them from an on-premise solution to a hosted or SaaS based solution? Don't assume it's a no-brainer for them to change. Make the benefits clear.

Can Sales demo the product?

Is this a product you can demo? If so, is there a reliable demo system that Sales can use (with relevant demo data)? There's nothing worse and more frustrating than a demo system that requires your reps to do the "demo delay dance" while struggling to connect, log in, refresh, etc. Do they have and have they been trained on a demo script? Can they comfortably demonstrate the product such that they spend more time highlighting the benefits rather than simply showing users where to click? In some cases you may even want to consider an internal demo certification process and not just training.

Collateral

Perhaps the most obvious need is to ensure everyone has the right amount and type of content and collateral. Go back to your buyer personas. Don't just create one of everything — make sure the collateral you create is in a format and is distributed where you know your buyers will consume it. This can include FAQs, sales decks, product comparisons/checklists, email announcements, your website, product slicks/sheets, and webinars that describe why one might need this new product.

Don't forget other internal stakeholders

Your internal education and promotion efforts may begin with Sales, but they better not end there. Though cross-functional, co-located teams are becoming the norm (fortunately), in many organizations departments still operate in silos without insight into the inter-dependencies and timelines other departments. Product launches cross all departments, and everyone has a role in the success of your launch. Does Implementation know how to implement the product? Does Support know how to support it? Product promotion and awareness should extend to your entire company — internal marketing will expand your reach).

Update the entire company regularly on messaging, positioning, value proposition, and the status of the launch to build buy-in and excitement. If your company hosts regular "show and tell" or all hands meetings, make sure you get on that agenda. Everyone in the company should be excited about being a part of getting to launch day AND having a role in celebrating and promoting the product once it's in the wild.

External partners matter

Do your partners (especially technology partners) know your product is coming, and will it break stuff (e.g., APIs and integrations)? Do you rely on channel partners to sell your product, and are they sufficiently activated?

Make sure you understand your product's full ecosystem. In many cases, it doesn't just begin and end with you. Somewhere along the line there are third parties and other teams that may be relying on a heads up and support for what's coming. They're looking for some type of pre-launch planning activity to easily account for the change you make. They need to understand how the product impacts them and how to integrate with and/or sell your product.

Plan for a smashing success

You've primed the funnel to perfection. You have the market whipped into a frenzy just dying to get their hands on your new product. Launch day can't come soon enough. But don't celebrate with high-fives just yet. For consumer products, you don't want to be stuck with a wave of orders that can't be filled. For software products, you don't want to create demand that you aren't able to service with an imminent go live. If you've done your homework and built the right product for the right people at the right time, be ready for success. This means being ready to deliver on the launch date.

Define the outcomes

Once your product is out the door and released into the wild, it's time to measure your product launch's effectiveness. What are the outcomes you are looking for, and how will you know if you've achieved them? The metrics you choose will depend on many things including the type of product you are launching and what you are trying to achieve with it. For example:

Number of trials started or demos requested
Content views, including product page views, video views, etc.
Amount and type of press coverage for the announcement
New customer or upgrade revenue
New product usage or adoption

Choose the metrics that are most relevant to your product and your business, and be sure to set a timeframe — for example, to increase Feature X usage by 10% within 90 days of launch. This is key for helping attribute results to the launch effort.

For extra credit you may even consider collecting internal qualitative feedback about your product launch to get a sense of how well you supported your internal stakeholders and whether they felt prepared for the launch. This could include:

On a scale of 1 to 5, how supported did you feel?
What launch assets (collateral, videos, etc.) have you used in the last month that have made you more successful?
Do prospects seem to have greater, less, or the same level of awareness of our company or Product X?

Make sure to get feedback from each of product marketing's stakeholders — from sales to product management to support to executive leadership.