Launching a brand new characteristic is an thrilling time at Buffer. It is the fruits of days, weeks and generally even months of the work that goes into constructing one thing new. There’s a number of pleasure and loads to have a good time. It is also a big time for our Assist crew. A product launch can generate a variety of conversations with our prospects. We need to be able to deal with that ticket quantity, shortly reply any questions on any nuance of the brand new characteristic, and successfully channel suggestions to the product groups that constructed it.
Launching a brand new characteristic generally is 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 situations, they could uncover bugs we did not find out about or have nice ideas for future iterations of the characteristic that we might add to our product roadmap.
We now have refined a course of for engaged on launches, making certain that the related individuals from the product, help, and advertising and marketing groups come collectively to work on the launch plan. On this put up, we’ll share a bit of about what we do in preparation for launches to create the absolute best final result for our prospects and our crew.
Reviewing new characteristic performance
Our Product crew continuously 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 transient describing the brand new characteristic’s performance in order that the engineers and designers can begin planning their method to bringing it to life. The Buyer Advocacy crew may also 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 trying to enhance. We will provide helpful insights and ideas to assist form the characteristic.
Working alongside advertising and marketing
As soon as the product supervisor has put a supply date in place for a brand new characteristic, the Advertising and marketing crew begin placing the wheels in movement for the launch occasion. We sometimes need to make an enormous deal of a launch to make sure that as many current and potential prospects study 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 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 overview this, because it helps us to anticipate the shopper response. Past the brand new characteristic’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 characteristic
The design crew will usually share a design prototype internally, an interactive preview of how the brand new characteristic 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 ideas for any tweaks or modifications.
Every 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 be certain that the product is top quality 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 will 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 after they need assistance, answering questions and serving to troubleshoot issues. So, we will need to have 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 training crew. They’re going to be concerned from an early stage to start out creating Buffer’s Assist Middle articles, making ready customer-facing guides and assets that describe how the characteristic works to reply widespread questions. We frequently share these assets within the emails and weblog posts we create after we launch a characteristic. It can cowl extra technical element and the nitty-gritty together with any vital technical limitations or advanced processes. The weblog posts and emails usually focus extra on the excessive degree options and advantages of the brand new characteristic.
Updating the interior launch information and coaching out crew
We create an Inside Launch Information for the Buyer Advocacy crew for every new characteristic that describes the way it works and highlights the good-to-knows, akin to plans for future iterations. Relying on how prospects use it, some extra performance is perhaps 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 potential 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 area 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 overview the suggestions and reply any questions that come up there. A number of the time, the shopper suggestions and questions that come up assist us develop our assist heart articles. We might not have anticipated all of the continuously requested questions forward of them truly being continuously requested!
Should you’d wish to take a peek on the template we use for the Inside Launch Information, you’ll be able to obtain a replica in .pdf format right here. Be at liberty to make use of it and adapt it to your wants – I’d love to listen to from you should you do! I’m on Mastodon right here: @davechapman@mas.to
Along with the Inside Launch Information, now we have inner coaching classes for important or sophisticated product modifications.
Anticipating inbox quantity
Once we launch a characteristic, we count on a rise within the quantity of questions and tickets on the help channel in response to the advertising and marketing communications on e mail and social. A day or two earlier than the launch, we purpose to double down on the inbox to cut back the amount prematurely. For a big characteristic launch, we’d purpose to maximise crew protection. Tuesdays work properly for us, with the best quantity if crew mates accessible, and we’d keep away from any syncs or conferences that may take us away from the inbox on as of late.
[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 shortly reply to anticipated questions. These work properly as a option to constantly share the steps wanted to navigate explicit 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 hold monitor of what’s occurring with the launch and makes it simple for the crew to entry details about it. We now have a devoted Slack channel for launches, and we’ll share important milestones and timings, akin to:
- the preliminary rollout to five % of customers (vital final test for any surprising points!),
- roll out to 100% of customers,
- the weblog put up is dwell,
- launch emails are despatched
- and so on…
This screenshot shares just a bit sneak peek into our #launches Slack channel:
It is also helpful to have one place to direct crew members who’re on the lookout for data. The Buyer Advocacy crew will probably 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 characteristic is launched, there’s usually a variety of pleasure, and hopefully many completely happy prospects! The Buyer Advocacy crew will probably be working with customers who’ve numerous questions, and a few might have issues or run into points, if there are some surprising bugs or hassle. We do our greatest to make sure the crew is ready to deal with all of those conditions, and punctiliously 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 one of the best probability contributing to a profitable launch day. There’s at all times extra we will do to arrange for a launch, and we take time to mirror after each. It’s at all times a studying expertise.
Right here’s a run down of our present method:
- Evaluation the exploration/discovery transient as soon as the product crew have mapped out their plans for the brand new characteristic. At this stage the Buyer Advocacy crew can provide helpful insights, in addition to doubtlessly put the product supervisor immediately in contact with prospects who might need some nice views to share
- Evaluation the design prototypes. These usually give us our first thought of the feel and appear of the brand new characteristic 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 accumulate suggestions.
- When the engineering crew is completed, the Buyer Advocacy crew run thorough testing to verify every thing works as anticipated
- Put together the Buyer Advocacy crew to concentrate on the inbox, ‘all arms on deck’ fashion, each forward of the launch to clear any inbox backlog, and in the course of the launch to maximise response occasions
- 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 comply with together with the rollout and bulletins
- Evaluation the suggestions and questions which have come up within the Inside Launch Information. This sometimes helps us evolve the shopper dealing with Assist Middle assets in addition to retaining 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 characteristic efficiently. Launching a brand new product is a variety of work, nevertheless it’s price 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 way in which.
What does a product launch appear to be for you? I’d love to listen to your tales! You may attain me on Mastodon right here: @davechapman@mas.to
This put up was initially printed on Buffer’s buyer help weblog.
