Launching a brand new function is an thrilling time at Buffer. It is the end result of days, weeks and typically even months of the work that goes into constructing one thing new. There’s a lot of pleasure and loads to have a good time. It is also a major time for our Assist crew. A product launch can generate a whole lot of conversations with our prospects. We wish to be able to deal with that ticket quantity, rapidly reply any questions on any nuance of the brand new function, and successfully channel suggestions to the product groups that constructed it.

Launching a brand new function is usually a step into the unknown — our prospects are inventive and can use our product in methods we did not anticipate and ask questions for which we did not put together solutions. In some edge-case eventualities, they might uncover bugs we did not find out about or have nice options for future iterations of the function that we may add to our product roadmap.

We have now refined a course of for engaged on launches, making certain that the related individuals from the product, assist, and advertising and marketing groups come collectively to work on the launch plan. On this publish, we’ll share a little bit about what we do in preparation for launches to create the absolute best final result for our prospects and our crew.

Reviewing new function performance

Our Product crew steadily shares updates to our product roadmap — the define and timeline of the options we’re planning to construct. Transparency is one among our strongest values, and we share this timeline publicly with prospects right here.

At an early stage, a Product Supervisor will create a design temporary describing the brand new function’s performance in order that the engineers and designers can begin planning their method to bringing it to life. The Buyer Advocacy crew can even have a look — because the crew that works extremely intently with prospects, we hear from our most vocal customers about what options they’d like to see us add or what components of their present workflow they’re seeking to enhance. We are able to supply useful insights and options to assist form the function.

Working alongside advertising and marketing

As soon as the product supervisor has put a supply date in place for a brand new function, the Advertising and marketing crew begin placing the wheels in movement for the launch occasion. We usually wish to make an enormous deal of a launch to make sure that as many present and potential prospects find out about it. The Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor will work with the Product crew to decide on the launch date, and the Buyer Advocacy crew will guarantee we have got good inbox protection for the proposed date.

The Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor will begin drafting the comms for the launch, together with the emails, weblog posts and social content material. Our Buyer Advocacy crew additionally will get to evaluation this, because it helps us to anticipate the client response. Past the brand new function’s performance, the advertising and marketing communications shares the story of why we have constructed it and the way it advantages prospects.

Testing out the function

The design crew will typically share a design prototype internally, an interactive preview of how the brand new function would look and performance. The Buyer Advocacy crew are normally desirous to strive it out. This helps us perceive the way it works and permits us to make options for any tweaks or adjustments.

Per week or two earlier than the launch, the product is normally prepared for some testing. Initially, that is inner earlier than we begin inviting prospects to have a look.Testing helps us make sure that the product is top of the range and straightforward to make use of earlier than it will get into our prospects’ arms. It helps uncover any last-minute bugs or points we are able to repair earlier than launch. Some members of the Buyer Advocacy crew will normally be concerned in testing. We’re our prospects’ first level of contact once they need assistance, answering questions and serving to troubleshoot issues. So, we will need to have a great understanding of the product earlier than it launches. That means, we’ll be prepared to assist our prospects get probably the most out of it.

Creating exterior assets

Inside our Buyer Advocacy crew, now we have a buyer schooling crew. They’re going to be concerned from an early stage to start out creating Buffer’s Help Center articles, getting ready customer-facing guides and assets that describe how the function works to reply frequent questions. We frequently share these assets within the emails and weblog posts we create after we launch a function. It should cowl extra technical element and the nitty-gritty together with any necessary technical limitations or advanced processes. The weblog posts and emails typically focus extra on the excessive degree options and advantages of the brand new function.

Updating the interior launch information and coaching out crew

We create an Inside Launch Information for the Buyer Advocacy crew for every new function that describes the way it works and highlights the good-to-knows, corresponding to plans for future iterations. Relying on how prospects use it, some extra performance is likely to be deliberate for the long run, and we would anticipate questions on this. For instance, after we first launched TikTok publishing, we did not have entry to the TikTok API for direct publishing, and we used a workaround to assist share scheduled posts to the TikTok app. We knew prospects would ask about the opportunity of direct publishing, so we anticipated this query within the Inside Launch Information and shared the context across the limitations and the plans for the long run.

The Inside Launch Information is a working doc, and it features a house for capturing buyer suggestions from our e mail and messaging inboxes and an space for the Buyer Advocacy crew to ask questions. The Product Supervisor and Advertising and marketing Supervisor will evaluation the suggestions and reply any questions that come up there. A whole lot of the time, the client suggestions and questions that come up assist us develop our assist heart articles. We might not have anticipated all of the steadily requested questions forward of them truly being steadily requested!

In the event you’d prefer to take a peek on the template we use for the Inside Launch Information, you’ll be able to obtain a duplicate in .pdf format here. Be happy to make use of it and adapt it to your wants – I’d love to listen to from you when you do! I’m on Mastodon right here: @[email protected]

Along with the Inside Launch Information, now we have inner coaching classes for important or difficult product adjustments.

Anticipating inbox quantity

After we launch a function, we count on a rise within the quantity of questions and tickets on the assist channel in response to the advertising and marketing communications on e mail and social. A day or two earlier than the launch, we goal to double down on the inbox to cut back the quantity upfront. For a major function launch, we’d goal to maximise crew protection. Tuesdays work nicely for us, with the best quantity if crew mates out there, and we’d keep away from any syncs or conferences that may take us away from the inbox on lately. [Callout: We work a four day work week at Buffer. See how our Customer Advocacy team works just four days a week while keeping up customer support.]

We’ll additionally put together macros and snippets containing pre-written sentences and phrases to assist us rapidly reply to anticipated questions. These work nicely as a solution to persistently share the steps wanted to navigate specific settings, for instance. These all get added to the Inside Launch Information to share inside the crew.

Launch day

Making a devoted channel for the launch is an effective way to maintain everybody knowledgeable. It helps maintain observe of what’s occurring with the launch and makes it straightforward for the crew to entry details about it. We have now a devoted Slack channel for launches, and we’ll share important milestones and timings, corresponding to:

  • the preliminary rollout to five p.c of customers (necessary final examine for any sudden points!),
  • roll out to 100% of customers,
  • the weblog publish is reside,
  • launch emails are despatched
  • and so forth…

This screenshot shares just a bit sneak peek into our #launches Slack channel:

It is also useful to have one place to direct crew members who’re searching for data. The Buyer Advocacy crew will likely be working of their common channels and utilizing the Inside Launch information as a useful resource for asking questions and sharing non-urgent suggestions.

Abstract

When a brand new product or function is launched, there’s typically a whole lot of pleasure, and hopefully many pleased prospects! The Buyer Advocacy crew will likely be working with customers who’ve numerous questions, and a few might have considerations or run into points, if there are some sudden bugs or bother. We do our greatest to make sure the crew is ready to deal with all of those conditions, and thoroughly planning product launches makes an enormous distinction to how issues go on the day of the launch and the times quickly after. Having a plan, and dealing intently with the product, engineering, design and advertising and marketing crew alongside the entire journey of bringing a product to market, offers our Buyer Advocacy crew the very best probability contributing to a profitable launch day. There’s at all times extra we are able to do to arrange for a launch, and we take time to replicate after every one. It’s at all times a studying expertise.
Right here’s a run down of our present method:

  • Overview the exploration/discovery temporary as soon as the product crew have mapped out their plans for the brand new function. At this stage the Buyer Advocacy crew can supply useful insights, in addition to doubtlessly put the product supervisor instantly in contact with prospects who may need some nice views to share
  • Overview the design prototypes. These typically give us our first concept of the appear and feel of the brand new function and it’s our probability to supply suggestions and views to the design crew.
  • Create an Inside Launch Information, to explain the options, together with the ‘good to is aware of’, and create an area to reply questions and acquire suggestions.
  • When the engineering crew is completed, the Buyer Advocacy crew run thorough testing to ensure every thing works as anticipated
  • Put together the Buyer Advocacy crew to concentrate on the inbox, ‘all arms on deck’ type, each forward of the launch to clear any inbox backlog, and throughout the launch to maximise response instances
  • Create an inbox filter in order that that members of the product and advertising and marketing groups can regulate the responses to the launch emails
  • Collect the crew in a particular launch Slack channel on launch day, to share the thrill and observe together with the rollout and bulletins
  • Overview the suggestions and questions which have come up within the Inside Launch Information. This usually helps us evolve the client going through Assist Middle assets in addition to maintaining everybody updated and knowledgeable.

As Buffer has grown, our product and engineering groups have additionally elevated in measurement. And as our product turns into extra highly effective, we should work collectively to roll out a brand new product or function efficiently. Launching a brand new product is a whole lot of work, but it surely’s value it while you see prospects utilizing it and getting worth from it. And as a Buyer Advocacy crew, it is much more gratifying to assist them each step of the best way.

What does a product launch appear to be for you? I’d love to listen to your tales! You’ll be able to attain me on Mastodon right here: @[email protected]

This post was originally published on Buffer’s customer support blog.


Source link