Last week I was speaking with a colleague who asked me for a copy of my product launch checklist. Somewhere in that request he used the word “essential”. I’m not averse to checklists and have no ill will toward them. I just have a problem when people use them as a crutch. The same guy probably asked his college roommate for an English Literature paper – - to save time writing his own.
Goals in a product launch are essential. Having a sound strategy is essential. But, a launch checklist? Checklists work great for chores and tiny, trivial tactics. Make your bed. Pay the bills. Do the laundry. Don’t forget the phone charger. Not so much for my product launches. Each one is different.
I understand that it is important to cover all of your bases and not to miss opportunities, but shouldn’t your checklist of tactics come from your product strategy? Shouldn’t they be uniquely aligned to your personnas and your new product?
My launch checklists are purposely disposable. I don’t do formula launches. I put thought into them. My checklist is unique to the new product.
Even within my launch checklists, the items are usually internally focused. Are the data sheet translations back from MarCom? Is the product on the price list? Is there a bin in the warehouse ready?
Do you put general items on the checklist? Call the newspaper/magazine/blog editor. Contact the trinkets supplier. Sign up for the trade show. Figure out my social media strategy. Or, do your launch activities get customized to each product, depending on things like budget, audience, timing and get specific.
From the outside looking in, you need to choose the best launch strategy to maximize the goals for each product. Then build your product launch checklist to focus on the unique deliverables and specific activities needed to achieve your launch goals.
Launch checklists shouldn’t be at the lower, task-level…. Rather, they should be at a higher, thinking framework level.
All product launches aren’t equal for sure….and thus any specific framework needs to be adapted to the specific context of the launch.
A checklist – as a thinking framework – is a necessary, but not sufficient, tool for PM. Adaptive, creative thinking which overlays, and thus modifies, the launch strategy is not only necessary, but perhaps a more critical success factor….
[...] of the fastball style of following the same list of activities that you did last time, the project checklist, rewrite your launch plan from scratch. Have the courage to throw out your template and start anew. [...]
[...] a plan for how to respond in the event of failure. This might be a good place for the (dreaded) launch checklist to make an appearance, simply to ensure that last minute details are properly taken care of. Create [...]
[...] a plan for how to respond in the event of failure. This might be a good place for the (dreaded) launch checklist to make an appearance, simply to ensure that last minute details are properly taken care of. Create [...]
Your’s is the intelligent arppcoah to this issue.