How to Launch at Scale
In last week's discussion, we spoke about shipping your ideas and products. There's a caveat to it - we dive into that today.
If you ship to your entire audience without testing, be prepared for massive blowback.
A couple of days ago, in a flight I was offered to pick a beverage. From the different options, I chose a mango kombucha. It's a fermented drink that has probiotics. Health reasons aside, I wanted something different. As soon as I open the can, it starts to explode like a champagne following out. Just that this is on cramped seats with nowhere to drain the liquid. A few minutes later, we hear the same issue being faced by other passengers. We were a stinking flight for sure - kombucha on clothes and carpets leaves a distinct smell.
The passenger next to me has a very unfavorable view of kombucha now.
I suspect these cans were not tested in flights before deployment. That's the cost of untested products hitting the market at scale. Is there a right way to launch?
Design thinking suggests a test phase in a product development cycle.
In this test phase, prototypes are given to a select sampling of the target customer. These are the folks who don't mind working with a product that is being refined. Importantly, their feedback is constructive.
After the input from this select audience is incorporated, you are ready for the mass launch.
During product development - the internal development - ship often. Let the ideas develop, reduce, or even discarded. More experiments the better.
After prototyping, become strategic about the launch.
Test with a small audience.
Listen and learn from their inputs.
Post that, we are ready for a massive rollout.
The cost of launching untested products can be so high it can derail any further trajectory.
Let's be strategic about it.
Happy Ideating!
Hemang.