How can you turn launch risks into opportunities for improvement?

Launching a new product or feature is always a risky endeavor, especially in a competitive and dynamic market. You may face technical glitches, user feedback, legal issues, or unexpected competitors. However, you can turn these launch risks into opportunities for improvement if you follow some best practices in product management. Here are some tips to help you mitigate launch risks and learn from them.

1 Plan ahead and prioritize

The first step to reduce launch risks is to plan ahead and prioritize your goals, resources, and tasks. You should have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, who your target audience is, and how you will measure success. You should also identify the most critical and uncertain aspects of your launch and allocate enough time and budget to test and validate them. Prioritizing your launch activities will help you focus on what matters most and avoid wasting time and money on less important or risky features.

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Pavithra Gopisetty

Vice President Engineering | ex-Apple | Kellogg School of Management
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One thing I found to be very useful is to hypothesize risk around feasibility , usability , adaptability and viability. MVP can be a critical way to engage customers and test your major adaptability risks and mitigation plans. Closed beta and open beta most likely will result in comparison of your feature rich product/service, with other competing product experiences. This will give you an intersection of user interest and competitive features that will pave your way to identify critical parity that most matter to your business.

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Rahul Saxena

Strategic Fintech Product Owner | AI Driven Knowledge Solution| Elevating User Journeys | Driving Digital Excellence | Ex-Thoughtworks
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In the realm of e-commerce, turning launch risks into opportunities for improvement involves proactive risk identification, mitigation, and continuous monitoring during a product launch. For instance, risks like technical glitches or unexpected market competition can be transformed into opportunities by encouraging team feedback and adaptability. When risks occur, performing root cause analysis and using those lessons to refine future launches and e-commerce processes can lead to improved product launches and greater market success.

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Parag Amalnerkar

Fractional CMO | Ex- NetApp, HPE, Sify | Talk about #marketing #advertising # consulting #economy # currentaffairs #trends
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Not sure how this holds. As much as one plans ahead anticipating risks , a risk actually would materialise post launch. The planning needs to be done with unbiased rigour and anticipate downsides of the launch. And for eliminating bias involvement of those who can critique internally and externally is essential. Those involved with the actual launch may develop a positive bias and this needs to be balanced with critique Plan B to mitigate risk post launch needs to be in place pre- launch.

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2 Communicate and collaborate

The second step to turn launch risks into opportunities is to communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders, team members, and users. You should share your launch plan, goals, and progress with your stakeholders and get their feedback and support. You should also involve your team members in the launch process and empower them to make decisions and solve problems. Moreover, you should engage your users early and often and collect their feedback and insights. Communicating and collaborating with your launch partners will help you build trust, alignment, and learning.

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Tony Pagliocco

Senior Vice President of Product Management - ALDAR| Ex-Boeing ✈️| Ex-Hasbro 🕹| Gartner Product Management Community Ambassador 🎓| Agile Evangelist & Data Driven Leader of Best-in-Class Product Teams 👍
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I think one of the best ways to accomplish. This is by having frequent retrospectives, where if you have a good team culture, you can use honesty and openness to be able to unlock new opportunities in face of uncertain risks, that may or may not be mitigated.

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3 Test and iterate

The third step to leverage launch risks for improvement is to test and iterate your product or feature before, during, and after the launch. You should use various methods and tools to test your product or feature with real users and in different scenarios. You should also monitor your launch performance and metrics and analyze the data and feedback you gather. Testing and iterating your product or feature will help you identify and fix issues, validate assumptions, and discover new opportunities.

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Samuel J Darling, MBA

Product Management as an art and a science
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I’ve seen teams often get so focused on delivering what’s committed, within the timeline it was promised; that they lose sight on the purpose of what’s being delivered. Only to realize after they deliver, that they have no baseline metrics to evaluate against to actually know if it’s a success, has opportunity, or is a total flop. If you approach every initiative with an empirical mindset: leveraging different testing methods and regularly validating with users from idea inception, discovery, design, dev, pilot/beta/mvp phases; it’s almost difficult to not see positive impact on the metrics against which you target when evaluating post-launch. Just don’t let these validations delay progress. Move quickly, test even faster.

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4 Learn and adapt

The fourth step to transform launch risks into improvement is to learn and adapt from your launch experience. You should conduct a launch retrospective with your team and stakeholders and review what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved. You should also document your launch findings, insights, and recommendations and share them with your organization. Learning and adapting from your launch will help you improve your product, process, and skills.

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5 Celebrate and appreciate

The fifth step to turn launch risks into opportunities is to celebrate and appreciate your launch achievements and efforts. You should acknowledge and reward your team and stakeholders for their hard work, creativity, and resilience. You should also celebrate your launch results, milestones, and learnings and share them with your users and community. Celebrating and appreciating your launch will help you boost morale, motivation, and loyalty.

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6 Anticipate and prepare

The sixth step to reduce launch risks is to anticipate and prepare for the future. You should evaluate the impact of your launch on your product roadmap, strategy, and vision. You should also anticipate the potential changes and challenges that may arise in your market, industry, or environment. Preparing for the future will help you stay ahead of the curve and seize new opportunities.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you turn launch risks into opportunities for improvement?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Plan ahead and prioritize

2 Communicate and collaborate

3 Test and iterate

4 Learn and adapt

5 Celebrate and appreciate

6 Anticipate and prepare

7 Here’s what else to consider

Product Management

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How can you turn launch risks into opportunities for improvement?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Plan ahead and prioritize

2 Communicate and collaborate

3 Test and iterate

4 Learn and adapt

5 Celebrate and appreciate

6 Anticipate and prepare

7 Here’s what else to consider

Product Management

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