{"id":77920,"date":"2022-03-08T17:26:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T17:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=77920"},"modified":"2025-01-13T16:25:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:25:55","slug":"soft-launches-are-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Should Product Managers Always Push for a Soft Launch?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I used to treat product launches differently. Like so many other product people, I\u2019d be sucked into launching with a bang: we\u2019d set a launch date, marketing would start to tee up all the relevant collateral, and off we\u2019d go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then we\u2019d all spend the next few weeks trying to hit the deadline we\u2019d set ourselves. The product development team would be inundated with questions and demands from sales and marketing, from senior management, who all want to know when they\u2019re going to be ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve all done it, haven\u2019t we? Overestimated our abilities, underestimated how much time something would take, and then found we can\u2019t get it ready in the time we\u2019ve allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big problem with this all-too common big bang approach to a product launch is that it stacks two contrasting and mismatched projects together. The marketing project that goes with a launch is all about tying campaigns to specific dates, whereas the development project is more of an art than a science – where you really want to avoid specific dates because you don\u2019t know how long it may take to get a product ready for launch. This \u2018hard launch\u2019 makes for friction between teams, half-completed products that no one is happy with, flagging morale, in short everything you\u2019d normally want to avoid when launching a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A soft launch is a better bet<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is why I believe it\u2019s important for product managers always to advocate for a soft launch. Rather than trying to coordinate a development release with market announcements, consider going live with the new feature before making a big marketing splash. When you\u2019re confident in the quality of the code, and that it solves the problem in the way you hoped, you can go to market confident that your product will hit the mark and be well received by your customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are different ways of doing a soft launch. You can beta test, add feature flags so that you can turn bits of the functionality on and off, pick a cohort of users to test, and so on. There\u2019s more on soft launches in this blog, Planning for Success \u2013 How to Master Release Planning<\/a>. A soft launch is also less expensive, plus it allows you to test the market and get customer feedback<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product managers should show the rest of the organization what the benefits of a soft launch can be. You can set the best expectations, and provide real clarity on what can be marketed and when. No one has to cross their fingers and hope that the timing will be right, and marketers can plan and invest resources better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, at ProdPad, we take a soft approach to product launches. We have a release train, with a release every Wednesday. The product team preps our marketers so that they know what’s coming out next and they have the pick of new features to include in their campaigns, planned around market trends. It certainly works for us – and it could work for you too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used to treat product launches differently. Like so many other product people, I\u2019d be sucked into launching with a bang: we\u2019d set a launch date, marketing would start to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5219,171,5221,5220],"pp_uni_tag":[],"class_list":["post-77920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-management-best-practice","tag-product-launch","tag-product-management-process","tag-release-planning","tag-soft-launch"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShould Product Managers Push for a Soft Launch? | ProdPad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rather than trying to coordinate a development release with market announcements, try going live with a soft launch first.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Should Product Managers Always Push for a Soft Launch? | ProdPad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I used to treat product launches differently. Like so many other product people, I\u2019d be sucked into launching with a bang: we\u2019d set a launch date,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ProdPad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-08T17:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-13T16:25:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/bLOG-IMAGE.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1006\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janna Bastow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@simplybastow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@prodpad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janna Bastow\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should Product Managers Push for a Soft Launch? | ProdPad","description":"Rather than trying to coordinate a development release with market announcements, try going live with a soft launch first.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Should Product Managers Always Push for a Soft Launch? | ProdPad","og_description":"I used to treat product launches differently. Like so many other product people, I\u2019d be sucked into launching with a bang: we\u2019d set a launch date,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/","og_site_name":"ProdPad","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow","article_published_time":"2022-03-08T17:26:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-13T16:25:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1990,"height":1006,"url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/bLOG-IMAGE.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Janna Bastow","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@simplybastow","twitter_site":"@prodpad","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janna Bastow","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/"},"author":{"name":"Janna Bastow","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ceec8b615b0ad09e9199ba2fa8545e8c"},"headline":"Why Should Product Managers Always Push for a Soft Launch?","datePublished":"2022-03-08T17:26:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-13T16:25:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/"},"wordCount":536,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["product launch","product management process","release planning","soft launch"],"articleSection":["Product Management Best Practice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/","name":"Should Product Managers Push for a Soft Launch? | ProdPad","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-03-08T17:26:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-13T16:25:55+00:00","description":"Rather than trying to coordinate a development release with market announcements, try going live with a soft launch first.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/soft-launches-are-better\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Latest Blogs","item":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/category\/latest-blogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Product Management Best Practice","item":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/category\/latest-blogs\/product-management-best-practice\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why Should Product Managers Always Push for a Soft Launch?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/","name":"ProdPad","description":"Product Management Software","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization","name":"ProdPad","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blue-full.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blue-full.png","width":2050,"height":400,"caption":"ProdPad"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/","https:\/\/x.com\/prodpad","https:\/\/instagram.com\/prodpad","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/prodpad\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCXHOx5Ed-6sHPujypIlhdMA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ceec8b615b0ad09e9199ba2fa8545e8c","name":"Janna Bastow","description":"Janna Bastow is co-founder of ProdPad, software that helps product managers plan and deliver better products. Janna also organizes ProductTank events around the world, including Mind The Product, a global community of product managers. She likes to inspire great product conversations by asking: \u201cWhat problem are you trying to solve?\u201d","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow","https:\/\/x.com\/simplybastow"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/author\/janna-bastow\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77920"},{"taxonomy":"pp_uni_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pp_uni_tag?post=77920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}