Product launch

A launch is not an announcement. The announcement is the cheapest part and the part most likely to be mistaken for the whole thing, which is how features get press coverage and no adoption.

Tier the launch before planning it

Not everything deserves the same treatment, and treating everything as major is how a team burns its own attention and its audience's.

• Tier one — changes the story you tell about the product, or opens a new segment. Full motion: positioning work, press, sales enablement, customer communication, campaign.
• Tier two — meaningful to existing customers, not a new story. In-product announcement, documentation, a note to affected accounts, sales briefing.
• Tier three — improvement. Release notes and nothing else.

Agree the tier before work starts, and expect the pull toward tier one from whoever built it. Effort spent above the tier is taken from somewhere else, usually from the next launch.