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Product Launch Plans

For some product launches, for example, the launch of Starship, a failure can be explosive. For most software product launches, failure is not as obvious. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put as much thought into them as SpaceX does. Here are some things to consider when you’re getting ready for your next product launch.

Ultimate guide to product launch. A product launch can speed up trial and adoption. The launch also has the potential to create buzz around a product. When done well, a successful product launch can carve out a place in the competitive landscape. But a lackluster debut is equally possible and potentially devastating. Creativity and subjective judgment play a role in every product launch. The folks at ProductPlan put together a comprehensive guide to what it takes to turn product launches into a triumphant success.

(via ProductPlan)

What is a product launch plan and how to create one. As a product manager, it’s your job to determine what products to build that deliver a valuable experience for your customers. But your responsibility goes beyond the decision-making and building process. When you’re about to deliver a new product to the market, you need to coordinate the moving pieces surrounding the launch, including setting goals for development and promoting your product post-launch. A product launch plan helps you organize all the activities around this process. Paul Van den Broeck shows you how to write a product launch plan step by step, including a simple framework to help you align stakeholders when developing and planning to release new products.

(via LogRocket)

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The Showdown at the Reddit Corrall
The wild, wild west of Reddit has seen itself in a full-blown brawl recently. Reddit's management and its merry band of volunteer moderators are locked in a digital standoff, with the social platform playing the role of the stubborn sheriff.

Why the fuss, you ask? The sparks started flying when Reddit decided to charge third parties for access to their data, leading to a Reddit version of a sit-in: voluntary blackouts of thousands of forums on the site. It's kind of like when your favorite pub locks its doors in protest of a new beer tax, except on a much, much bigger scale.

Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, is defending the company's choice, essentially dubbing those disgruntled third-party developers as freeloaders. And the company isn't just fighting with words – they're also playing chess with the moderators, setting the stage to kick out the most determined protest leaders. The result? Communities once hidden from the public may soon be out in the open again.

Even still, more than 6,000 Reddit forums went dark on Monday, with nearly 5,000 still remaining inaccessible to the public. That's a chunk of Reddit's audience that's missing out on cat gifs, deep dives into philosophical theories, and arguments about who shot first, Han or Greedo. But Reddit, standing tall in its cowboy boots, is telling us not to worry. There are still about 100,000 forums open, with 80% of the top 5,000 most engaged subreddits still operational. You could say it's Reddit's version of "let them eat cake," except here it's "let them post memes."

As the Reddit blackout continues, this brawl is becoming more of a battle of attrition. The question is: Will the silent majority raise their voices, or will the blackouts gradually fizzle out? 

How content can support a tech product launch. You build a strong product launch strategy on education. Along with placing a new offering on the market, your brand needs to act as a guide. That’s where content comes into play. Through newsletters, blog articles, customer stories, infographics, guides, demos, and other assets, content can help position a company and foster a better, more thorough customer conversation. The folks at Boom Image Studio share a few tips for creating a product marketing strategy that help make a product launch successful.

(via BOOM)

How to Pull Off a Product Launch Like a Pro. About 30,000 products launch each year—however, of those 30,000 product launches, an astounding 95% of them fail. Too many companies try to launch new products or product lines without a proper launch strategy in place. To have a successful product launch, you need to first have an amazing product. Second, you need to take the time to put together a proper product launch strategy with a realistic timeline. Chloe West dives deeper into what a product launch should look like, what you need to include in your launch plan and how to create a successful launch.

(Via Chloe West)

7 steps to Launching a New Product using visual tools. When launching a product there aren’t guaranteed methods for success, especially since every product is unique and every product has a different audience of its own. But having a well-crafted plan to launch a product can help avoid failure. In this guide to launching a new product, the folks at creately discuss how you can go about launching a new product and what visual tools you can use when developing and planning a product launch.

(via Creately)

Becoming a Product Leader

BONUS: Register and attend this webinar, and receive a complimentary electronic copy of Build What Matters, by Ben Foster ($11.49 value)

BECOMING A PRODUCT LEADER

The thing very few people understand about product leadership is that the most essential skills aren’t even product skills. Anybody in the product organization can be a leader. But leadership isn’t a title. It’s a series of actions and behaviors that enhance influence and increase impact.

In this virtual fireside chat, we’ll dig in on Product Leadership with Ben Foster — a 25-year product veteran at places like eBay, Whoop, and elsewhere. Ben also teaches Product Leadership in his newly launched Product Leadership course through a collaboration between Product Collective and Gigantic.

We'll talk through:

• The major challenges that product people face when transitioning from product management to product leadership.
• Common traps and pitfalls that new product leaders often make and live through.
• What product people that aspire to transition into product leadership — or what new product leaders — can do in order to give themselves the biggest chance of success as a product leader.

Plus, we’ll answer questions of your own as well!

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