The success or failure of a product launch rests solely on the product manager. Given that a successful product launch needs the cooperation of many departments on whom you have very little control on, having a good launch plan is critical. Here are 5 critical steps you need to follow to make sure you get that all important plan built out right.
- Make an initial project plan: The Project Management Institute (PMI) teaches PMPs that the key to a successful project lies in meticulous planning and tracking. I completely endorse this view. Start off by making an elaborate plan for the launch. Include all the activities that need to get completed before the launch. And make sure to assign action owners against each of the activities. Do not hesitate to put in tentative deadlines. It is always good to keep the leads of these various departments as action owners as they need to have the authority to get the work done in their own departments and are responsible and accountable for the success of the launch.
- Get your manager’s buy in: Since your success or failure is going to be determined by the success of your launch, it is essential that the person who is going to review your performance is on board with your plan and that he or she will empower you to achieve your objectives. Discuss the plan at length as well as any concerns, reservations, or apprehensions that you have with your manager. It is critical that you and your manager are on the same page and you have his complete co-operation and backing. Once you have reviewed the plan with your manager, distribute it to all the stakeholders and action owners.
- Call a meeting of the key stakeholders: just having sent out the project plan for the launch does not guarantee that they’ve reviewed your plan. To ensure that you have everyone on the same page, call a meeting of all the key stakeholders to discuss the plan. For the meeting, prepare a short PowerPoint presentation with key dates and activities – calling out the names of the action owners as well as the dates that you have proposed. Prepare well for this meeting.
- Run the stakeholder meeting: This meeting is likely to be stormy. Expect to receive a lot of pushback from the key stakeholders, who have, in all probability, not looked at your project plan and therefore have a huge number of objections to what you have proposed. Remember, since you do not work for every department, even if you have prepared the plan seeking the advice from key people in those departments, it is not until this meeting where you ask them to sign off on the plan do they actually give it all the attention that it deserves. You will most probably achieve very little from this meeting in terms of getting a sign off on the plan. However, all your stakeholders and action owners will go back and review your plan. If you accomplish this, you have achieved your objective. Before you let them leave the room, get everyone to commit to a date by when they are going to send you their comments.
- Refine the plan: Once you receive the feedback from every one of your stakeholders, you will need to rework that plan quite a bit. If you feel that there are conflicts, call in a meeting of the stakeholders involved and work out a plan that works best for everyone. It is critical to have all parties agree to stand by this plan and follow it to the T. Therefore, make sure that the plan that you send out for sign off is something that everyone agrees upon.
This set of five steps can help you get the all too important project plan signed off. Having everyone commit to and sign off on the plan can help ensure the success or failure of your product launch. So, make sure you do a good job of building out that plan and getting everyone on board. Good luck!
