Maximize Your Launch Impact: The Power of Aligning on Tiers
Use This Framework to Be Impactful and Efficient
Launches around new products, acquisitions, partnerships or thought leadership are pivotal moments for your company, marking significant milestones that deserve attention. However, the success of a launch hinges on the alignment of your Executive, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales teams. I love defining launch tiers to get everyone on the same page about what effort is deserved for its relative impact. Andrew Marshall, VP of Product Marketing at Tackle.io, shared this fantastic Tiered framework at an offsite recently, and I couldn’t wait to blog about it here.
I have learned that this framework was based on Forrester's Launch Tier Model. Read their full report here.
Product Release ≠ GTM Launch (unless it does)
Not all launches are created equal. Some may be groundbreaking, while others might offer incremental improvements. This is where launch tiers come into play. By categorizing your launches into different tiers, you can set clear expectations across the company regarding the time and effort that will be invested based on the anticipated market impact.
For instance, a major software release that is crucial for existing customers may not necessarily be market-moving news. On the other hand, a seemingly minor feature in AI or a new integration could generate significant buzz if it’s highly differentiated.
It’s very likely you work with passionate Product Managers, Partnership Managers, etc, who can’t wait to tell the market about their product or project. That’s great! However, level-setting on the overall shape of the launch will help them help you and the company focus resources where they can really make an impact
Defining Launch Tiers
Sometimes, you’re forced to define tiers on the fly as you quickly approach a specific release. If possible, it’s better to define launch tiers and the build of materials for the tiers ahead of time, getting alignment on the framework with Product and Engineering. In Andrew Marshall’s spreadsheet below, he breaks down launches based on the impact on different audiences (e.g., existing customers, prospects, the market), how the launch aligns with your company's value drivers and competitive differentiators and specifies which types of assets are needed for each tiered launch Broadly, the tiers break down as follows:
Tier 1: Major product releases with significant market impact. Requires comprehensive planning and coordination across all teams.
Tier 2: Important updates or new features that enhance the product's value proposition.
Tier 3: Minor updates or enhancements that maintain product relevance and competitiveness.
Download the file to edit it for your company here:
Plan Your Whole Year
Once you have it in place, the tiering framework will be a helpful tool as you regularly review the product roadmap and the company calendar template. As an advisor, I often emphasize to CEOs that they need 2-3 Tier 1 moments per year, ideally at least one in the spring and fall, for marketing and sales to get market traction. These can be product releases but also investing announcements, acquisitions, thought leadership data pieces, or the like. Many Tier 2 and Tier 3 releases don’t necessarily add up to a real Tier 1 announcement.
Planning in advance also helps you batch efforts - if a Tier-1 launch lands in late Fall, consider combining it with a significant event. If you have a user conference in 6 months, make sure you emphasize to the CEO and Head of Product how critical a Tier 1 launch would be for your big moment. (I’ve worked for many CEOs who regretted not planning a Tier 1 launch as they struggled to prepare their keynote on ‘what’s new and exciting’ with a few incremental feature releases).
At the team level, planning ahead is critical - Demand Generation, Content Marketing, Sales and enablement teams all need to know what launches will require significant effort and which will not. Sometimes, it’s hard to parse this just by looking at product roadmaps with many releases.
You’ll Thank You Later
Adopting a launch tier framework aids in long-term planning and impact. By understanding what constitutes real Tier 1 news, leaders can plan or create real inflection points for the business. By understanding the scope and timing of each launch, teams across the organization can synchronize their efforts for maximum impact. There’s always more to do than time will allow, so understanding what really matters is critical. Good luck!
This blog was co-written with Andrew Marshall, VP of Product Marketing at Tackle.io. Thanks, Andrew!
yes yes yes! Too many companies fail to recognize, differentiate and act on the tiers. Tier1 can be a massive force multiplier when you later in events, partners and more for max leverage.
Interesting read, Carilu! How about continuous delivery and or soft launching a feature to a subset of the userbase until it matures?