I was speaking with a product manager last week who was describing the challenges of managing a cross organizational team while getting ready for the launch of a major enhancement to an existing product line.  When she described the team I asked her why finance was absent.  She indicated that product management would engage finance and accounting at the end of the process, three weeks prior to the go live date.  In my mind this was a mistake – albeit a common one – and I told her why.

What is finance focused on?  Pricing, billing, investment, legal and revenue recognition to name a few.  Without all of these issues identifed, agreed to and in place, a new product or service cannot launch.  In almost every case finance is part of the team that approves any new product initiatives.  The company looks at them as the conscience of the organization.  They are not only actively engaged at the outset but they need to be part of the team that helps manage the full product lifecycle including launch.

In addition, finance can be a product manager’s best friend in terms of tracking investment pre-launch and revenue post-launch.  They don’t just contribute to the cft, they actually are the lynch pin in delivering product readiness and ultimately measuring success or failure.  Not only that, you really don’t want to upset the area of the organization that signs paychecks and approves expenses.

It is interesting however that in many cases a lot of pms are intimidated more by finance than their customers.  Work with the CFO.  Find a member of the finance and accounting team that you’re comfortable with.  You would be suprised as to how you can lower the risk of launch delay or failure if you have the money men and women actively engaged.

If you’ve done your homework, surveyed the market and have the data to prove your position, skip this post. If you believe you understand the market and don’t need to talk to the market to validate your opinions read on. Maybe it’s your ego or your arrogance that prevents you from talking to the market. Maybe it’s fear. Either way, statistically, you’re a train wreck waiting to happen.

Let me walk you through it. You worked in an industry for a number of years. That experience gives you a sense of intuitive understanding of the industry and what makes it tick. More than likely you were in a mid-level position where you had the benefit of seeing life in the trenches. During this time you saw a set of recurring problems and maybe even formulated some technical solutions to address them. You presented your ideas to management, who didn’t embrace your enthusiasm for the problem. You’re frustrated, hurt and maybe angry. You develop an “I’ll show them” attitude and strike off on your own.

In your spare time you develop a prototype and begin to show it to your peers. Your peers give you glowing feedback and reinforce your sense of importance. You are on your way to being rich.

You get introduced to angel investors who are struck by your enthusiasm and command of the problem. They give you the seed capital you need to take your idea to the next level. You hire a few developers with the goal of moving from prototype to commercial ready.

You spend the next 6 months heads-down developing the solution. You know what features need to go into the product. After all, you lived the problem and know how to fix it. There’s no time to survey the market and talk to decision makers. You know the problem and you have the answer.

Three months into the project you begin to get feedback from the team about specific features that might be missing. They’re smart guys so they’ve started poking around to identify competitive alternatives and what they’re offering. You’re annoyed by the distraction. The competitors don’t get it. You have the answer.

Your team delivers the product in 6 months on budget as planned. Investors are happy with your project management skills and assure you they can help raise more money when needed. It’s now reckoning time. The product is ready and you’re ready to launch.

You start your product launch carefully. Since you don’t have a big budget you prefer to do a soft launch and to get the product into the hands of a few customers. You reach out to the peers in your network, get a few meetings and demos. You are encouraged by the glowing feedback.

Then nothing happens. No sales. No interest. Nothing.

You panic. It must be the price. We must have the wrong sales guys. Marketing is a waste of money. The prospects don’t “get it”.

Money is running out and your team is demoralized by the lack of sales. They doubt your expertise in the problem and the market. Did they just spend 6 months of their lives building a product that no one wants to buy? How could this happen? They feel betrayed.

It’s happening everyday to startups and big companies. And it can be easily addressed by setting aside some of the arrogance and getting out to talk to the market before it’s too late. What is the problem (in their words)? What are they doing to fix it now (in their words)? How important is this problem in the grand scheme (in their words)?

We will be delivering "Product Launches on a Bootstrap Budget" starting on Tuesday April 8.  As the title suggests this webinar is targeted toward organizations with limited launch budgets but still need to maximize results.

Product Launches on a Bootstrap Budget is a 1.5 hour webinar with a live instructor. The webinar will focus mainly on tactics and readiness, with an emphasis on what needs to happen in order to build momentum. Of course, it’s all about how to launch with the least amount of resources.  We’ll cover different tactics you can use "out of the box" that can turn your launch from ho-hum to high-impact.

The techniques you will learn from this webinar have been proven in years of product launches.  While the technologies we use behind the tactics evolve over time, the fundamentals stay the same.  Your messaging needs to resonate with your prospect’s problem, your prospects need to find your solution, the product needs to work, your sale teams needs to know how to sell the value of the solution and your customer support team needs to be able to address any problems along the way.

To learn more about this webinar, follow this link.