Member Challenge
Client challenges to a successful product launch can be varied and complex, depending on the specific market, product, and context. Here are some of the most common challenges:
1. Market Understanding:
- Clients may struggle with understanding the target market's needs and preferences, which is critical for positioning the product effectively.
2. Competition Analysis:
- Identifying and differentiating from competitors can be tough, especially in a crowded market. Clients need to clearly communicate why their product is the better choice.
3. Resource Allocation:
- Effectively allocating resources such as budget, time, and personnel can be challenging. There's often a need to balance product development, marketing, sales, and customer support.
4. Marketing Strategy:
- Developing a coherent marketing strategy that effectively reaches and persuades the target audience is a major challenge. This includes digital marketing, public relations, and promotional events.
5. Product Quality and Readiness:
- Ensuring the product is fully functional and meets customer expectations upon launch is crucial. Technical issues or product shortcomings can undermine a launch.
6. Supply Chain Management:
- Logistics and supply chain issues can delay or complicate a product launch, especially in industries dependent on timely deliveries of components or products.
7. Regulatory Compliance:
- For many products, especially in health, finance, and technology sectors, navigating the complex regulatory landscape is necessary but challenging.
8. Stakeholder Alignment:
- Ensuring all stakeholders, including internal teams and external partners, are aligned and committed to the launch goals can be difficult.
9. Customer Education and Onboarding:
- Teaching potential users about the product’s benefits and how to use it effectively is essential for adoption but often overlooked.
10. Feedback and Adaptation:
- Gathering and incorporating customer feedback quickly to iterate on the product or strategy post-launch can be daunting but is vital for long-term success.
Understanding these challenges can help in planning more effective product launch strategies and in providing better support to clients through the process.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Successful product launch planning provides insight into market dynamics, operational efficiencies, team performance, and the product's overall value proposition, informing future decisions and strategies.
Impact and Result
A well-documented collaborative product launch plan that was done with methodical planning and execution transformed challenges into opportunities, setting a gold standard for future product launch planning within your company.
Research & Tools
| Name | Actions |
|---|
1. Crush Your Product Launch Storyboard – Executive summary and phases to build and launch successfully.
Use this storyboard to enable your launch team to align organizational partners with a common approach to managing the product build and launch phases of a successful product process.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Crush Your Product Launch Storyboard
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2. Crush Your Product Launch Workbook – Eliminate process gaps and ensure readiness for a successful product launch.
This workbook is designed to help marketers ensure launch readiness. It should be completed after reviewing the Crush Your Product Launch blueprint.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Crush Your Product Launch Workbook
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3. Crush Your Product Launch Executive Presentation – Summarize your launch plan to get approval.
Use this template to document your final strategy outputs, including executive-facing business decisions relating to alignment and launch activities
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Crush Your Product Launch Executive Presentation
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Onsite Workshop: Crush Your Product Launch
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
Module 1: Identify the Goals and Objectives for Launch
The Purpose
- Align team, identify and document roles and responsibilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Documented product launch strategy committee and working team.
- Recorded prioritized goals and business objectives.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 1.1 Gather stakeholders to identify and document the business needs. |
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| 1.2 Identify and document the product to be launched. |
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| 1.3 Complete the alignment worksheet. |
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Module 2: Align Team and Responsibilities
The Purpose
- Validate initial team insights, identify product launch tiers
Key Benefits Achieved
- Categorized products by innovation tier and impact on resources.
- Allows for differentiating between major updates and minor enhancements.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 2.1 Identify individuals critical to success. |
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| 2.2 Determine departmental roles and responsibilities. |
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Module 3: Identify Product Launch Tiers
The Purpose
- Document launch activities and resources.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Initial review – “Are we going in the right direction with the right resources and timing?”
- A detailed launch plan covering activities, departmental roles, resource allocation, and timelines
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 3.1 Build your classification tiers. |
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| 3.2 Determine the product’s innovation tier type for the launch level. |
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Module 4: Document Launch Activities and Resources
The Purpose
- Summarize findings and provide actionable guidance to management.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A presentation summarizing the project for executive endorsement
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Define launch activities based on tier. |
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| 4.2 Document activity projects by dept. |
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| 4.3 Outline resources, timelines, and deadlines against activities. |
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Module 5: Summarize Findings and Present Results
The Purpose
- Next steps and wrap-up (offsite)
Key Benefits Achieved
- Completed launch strategy template.
- Product launch strategy roadmap by innovation tier.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 5.1 Draft product launch strategy plan for executives to approve. |
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| 5.2 Identify resource, operational, and executional requirements. |
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| 5.3 Build the draft launch strategy for leadership stakeholders. |
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