What are the top risks to your product launch and how can you mitigate them?

Most products that fail, failed because they didn't start from the problem they were solving. They either tried to force or create a market need, or they were poorly assessed from an opportunity/problem point of view. Market fit comes simply from 1) understanding the problem you're solving, 2) understand where currently solutions aren't great at, 3) filling the gap with an innovative approach, 4) being often 10x better than competitors at the rest. If you do all 4, you might have a shot at users switching from what they use. And I say "a shot" because humans are often too lazy to switch.

If your product launch is jeopardized by a market misfit then you have some serious problems in your product management workflow! Ideally market fit should have been validated prior to commencing the development process. Your ideation and validation processes have to be revisited and enhanced to avoid mismatch in the future.

7 Risks and Mitigations: 1. No market love: Conduct thorough research, validate the product idea, and iterate based on feedback. 2. Fierce foes: Differentiate your product and monitor competitors closely. 3. Sales slumps: Develop a strong marketing strategy and analyze sales data regularly. 4. Scaling struggles: Plan for scalability, optimize infrastructure, and hire accordingly. 4. Wandering eyes: Focus on a clear product roadmap and prioritize features. 5. Mismatched jigsaw: Continuously seek product-market fit and adapt based on feedback. 6. Legal limbo: Ensure compliance with laws and protect intellectual property. 7. Team turmoil: Build a strong, cohesive team with open communication and conflict resolution.

Another perspective is the change in external factors. I have observed this in the products that solve problems which get impacted by change in Government regulations. E.g a product which helps in filing tax returns. There are two parts to managing it: One, the minimum viable product should be launched in minimum possible time, preferably within the cycle during which such changes are announced or bound to happen. That way atleast when its launched there is a market fit. Two, make the architecture flexible so as to incorporate any future changes. Avoid hard coding & map the impact of variables, so changes can be build without much impact on the user experience while keeping the product relevant.

When product does not resonate with the target audience it leads to poor adoption and sales. Here are some of the ways how Market Fit can be mitigated : - Conduct extensive market research - gather feedback from potential customers during development, and make iterative improvements based on their input.

Go back to setting "old, good" deadlines! Love them or hate them but we all need to have clear deadlines and priorities. Solicit your team and stakeholders' input to come up with sensible deadlines and build in a buffer. Once agreed on timeline, priorities and scope, hold everyone accountable to deliver within agreed terms.

In complex environments, sometimes scope creep can be 'self-inflicted' when product teams loop in experts from other functions like legal, compliance, PR, etc. too late in the day and important changes are needed prior to launch. A robust product discovery process and frequent feedback loops with stakeholders can help mitigate the risk of this derailing your launch.

The culture of your company and team can really impact how you think about what the true definition of MVP is. If you have a lean startup culture, shipping the cheapest experiment to validate a hypothesis, then iterating, is ingrained in how you build product. But I've also been on teams where they know they'll never get a chance to iterate due to a change in priorities or just a higher bar for the quality of MVP, and therefore the initial scope would be different in these circumstances.

The best ways to prevent scope creeping are 1) bring your engineering and design team early in the discovery and ideation phase, 2) stick to a timeline or deadline, 3) make it clear in the problem space which areas you are NOT tackling, 4) run a good architecture and complexity measurement process to rule out what is ROI negative, 5) clearly define what parts of the scope are WON'T (what you will not do) and communicate accordingly. Often scope creep derives from one (or many) of these 5 points not happening.

Scope creep happens almost every time and everywhere. It's not bad as it's part of agile methodologies. But we should decide meticulously these things - 1. Does the proposed change align with the goals and objectives? If no, then drop it. 2. If above yes, can we push it in the backlog? If yes, then put it in backlog based on priority. 3. If above no, then how can we implement it in the current scope without impacting much. Believe me, if thought strategically, most of the time you'll be fine with step 1 and 2.

Releasing at the expense of quality is never a good idea! While having a QA functions is obviously a good control option, ideally we should strive for ongoing monitoring. Build in time and effort into your sprint routines to ensure quality control. Particularly challenge the areas that were subject to failed quality in the past.

Lack of Scalability is one of the common Technical Challenge faced after the Product launch especially If the product experiences unexpected success, it might be challenging to scale up operations to meet demand. We must Plan for scalability from the beginning and have a clear plan for handling growth.

Beyond standard QA practices, consider adopting Privacy by Design principles and secure coding practices. Integrate privacy considerations and security measures early in your product development cycle. Leveraging automated security tools during development, conducting security audits, and continuously training your team about the latest threats can help prevent breaches. Remember, robust technical systems improve functionality and user trust and comply with increasingly stringent data protection regulations. Plan for contingencies to ensure smooth operation even during unforeseen situations.

Assess your system performance as soon as you deploy. Don't wait for anyone to report an issue. In reality something will always get missed.

As a PM, you can't control the dev code quality much except for discussing it regularly with the dev lead. For the functionality testing, we can ensure that we write intensive test cases, follow proper UAT process in Staging before pushing it to production. From my personal experience, the exploratory testing has been much useful than the unit test case testing. I'd suggest, give access of Staging to sales, marketing, ops and ask them to test. You'll get broader perspectives and more bugs will be covered.

Target Audience Identification: Clearly define your target audience and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. This knowledge will shape your marketing messaging and channels, ensuring you reach the right people with the right message. Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Identify your product's unique selling points that set it apart from competitors. Emphasize these differentiators in your marketing materials to showcase the value it brings to customers. Pre-Launch Teasers and Hype: We Create a buzz around your upcoming product launch by releasing teasers and sneak peeks. Content is crucial for marketing success. Create compelling and informative content that highlights the benefits of the product

One thing that has worked wonders for me. Do INCLUDE your marketing team from the very start, when you complete the PRD/user stories. They should also understand the core objetive of the feature. This will empower them to create right marketing strategies and with enough headstart.

A great marketing strategy comes from deeply understanding the problem space and empathically translating why your product decisions match this problem space. Great product marketing has users resonating with the message. Strong products sell outcomes and a better reality, not features. Great marketing elicits an emotional response when a user is evaluating what a product can do. Great marketing has product management as close as possible.

To minimize risk, thorough market research is essential. Analyzing market trends, understanding customer behavior, and assessing your competition can help you pinpoint the optimal launch timing. Don't forget to consider external factors like seasonality and events that might impact your launch.

Launching is less important than most people think. Airbnb famously launched 3 times before anyone noticed. The PM and the company care more about the "launch" than anyone else. Often teams burn themselves out to deliver on a launch date, that has no material effect other than creating an artificial timeline to put pressure (which is necessary to prevent a forever wheel of iterations). Focus on launching quickly, and iteration, knowing that the best customers are yet to come.

Timing is everything! I once launched a MedTech product at the end of a quarter. Though I meticulously planned my launch, I didn't consider the timing. Take out the calendar. Many people overlook holidays, major conferences, spring break, etc. to be sure you have your customers' attention. Also, ask your partners in supply chain, sales, etc. They may have conflicting priorities that will impact the launch.

When everyone is working harmoniously toward a shared vision and goals, it minimizes conflicts, misunderstandings, and inefficiencies. Fostering a collaborative and transparent culture is key. Communication is your ally; clearly and consistently communicate your product vision, strategy, and roadmap to your team and stakeholders.

Team alignment starts at the beginning, and requires strong project management skills from the PMs and senior members of a product line. The best tactic to guarantee alignment is to reduce the friction to communicate and invest in asynchronous flows. Managing up properly is also a key aspect of great team alignment. Managing expectations, underpromising and overdelivering is the end goal, and everyone involved should aim to perform in this area.

If you work in an environment that is highly regulated, then keeping legal and compliance updated on all changes is key. Because if either of them are unhappy with (say) even the content , it will be a launch blocker for your product.

Don't forget the alpha testing. Often we depend mostly on beta testing but alpha testing will refine the product a lot. The involvement of other functional team members in testing will help you uncover some amazing perspectives.

The top risk is falling in love with an idea and forgetting to test it with the right audience. Successful product launches start humble, they go small, learn fast, adapt quickly, and only scale up when they have found a market fit for a niche market. Patience. Curiosity. Courage. These are three aspects required to thrive. You need to be patient because your ideas will fail. You need to remain curious because you simply don't know what you don't know. You need to be brave to go against all the advice to play it safe. Launching a product is complex. Focus on small steps enabling learning on the way.