The Launch Doctor - Email Newsletter

Hello fellow launchers, and welcome to this month’s edition of The Launch Pad Newsletter.

In the spirit of football season, this edition is about launch teams. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Launch Pad September 2003

Go Launch Team, Go!

Here we are, it’s September already, and it’s one of my favorite months. It’s the start of football season, and the time of year when my spouse knows not to book anything for us to do on Sundays or he will be sorry. That is my football time, and I have my priorities.

It’s also the month we should talk about teams; specifically, launch teams. Regardless of what you are launching and what size of company, you will need at a minimum a team of two people to get everything done. The more you have the better, but it is also possible to have too many people because it can slow things down. A good number for a launch team is five.

You need to assemble your launch team at least eight weeks before launch date, and twelve weeks before launch date is preferable. That way, your team can help plan the launch deliverables, develop the detailed schedule and put together the budget. Usually, if you involve the launch team in the planning activities, they will be more committed to get everything done on time. You may also benefit from other people’s perspectives on how to get all of the work done. Five heads are better than one.

Finding Free Agents
Unlike professional football, you are very, very unlikely to find people lining up to try out for your launch team. The reason: you are not going to be able to offer them million-dollar contracts with signing bonuses. In other words, there are not a lot of incentives to join a launch team, and 99 percent of the time, these people are working on the launch team on top of doing their usual full-time jobs. Given that situation, you will have to resort to whatever you can in order to convince people to join your launch team. You can try groveling, bribery, threats, or speaking frankly to their managers. Or you can just ask them nicely and tell them that the team really, really needs their expertise and guidance (otherwise known as feeding their ego).

Where do you find launch team members? You need to recruit from a cross-section of the company. For a launch team of five members, you should have the following disciplines represented: -Technical or engineering -Marketing communications -Public relations professional (or liaison with outside agency) -Sales -Launch team leader (usually from Marketing department)

If you can’t find five people, you will need to have at least one person who can represent the technical or development organization, and one from the marketing organization. A technical representative is critical because they will be able to keep the team informed of any changes with regard to product release date or changes in product features and functionality. This is sometimes the product manager for that particular product or product family.

The Roster
Okay, so now that you have some reluctant or somewhat submissive recruits, it’s time to figure out which positions they will play. The function of the team as a whole is to handle the transition of the product when it comes out of the development cycle, and get the product released into the marketplace. As part of that effort, the sales people have to know about the product and how to sell it, and need information and tools to help sell it. The external marketplace needs to become aware of the product, and be compelled to purchase it. All of that involves the assembly and communication of a lot of information, otherwise knows as “launch deliverables”.

Assuming the team has five members, here is one way to divide up the work: -Sales Liaison - maintain contact with the sales organization (and especially sales training) to make sure that they receive the right marketing materials and sales tools to sell the product
-P.R. Liaison - act as a liaison with any public relations organization (internal or external) to develop and distribute press releases as needed
-Technical representative – Report status of product release and availability, provide detailed descriptions of product features and functionality for marketing materials, gather information for sales training on the product, provide to team the results of any beta testing and customer feedback
-Marketing communications – coordinate and develop marketing materials such as datasheets, brochures, web content, sales training kits, and other materials
-Launch team leader: Must meet regularly with team to obtain status on all activities, report progress to management, plan and manage all deliverables, maintain budget

Cheerleading
If you are the launch manager, then like any management position, you will have to MOTIVATE your team. It’s especially important for a launch team, because things are so chaotic and on a tight schedule, that there’s little room for delays or tasks that seem to “fall through the crack”. People are going to be working long hours for several weeks to get everything done, so be sensitive to the stress level. You have to be a cheerleader. (Did you hear the one about the cheer of the dyslexic cheerleader? Og, maet, og!)

Motivating your launch team can be as simple as having a meeting outside in the courtyard for a change of scene, or having a lunch meeting catered – just a little extra something to show your appreciation for their hard work. If you don’t have a big budget for treats and such, just motivate with words instead. Recognize and thank people in the meeting, in front of the rest of the team, to let them know you appreciate their efforts. Tell your team that you will make the launch date and it will be the best launch ever. If you believe it, then it will eventually rub off on other members of the team.

Superbowl Party
The launch day is the equivalent of Superbowl Sunday. That means that when the launch is over, it’s time to party. Bring in some food and party fare. Save some money in your budget for this. Invite senior management. Congratulate your team in front of them. Post a notice on the company’s private network that the company successfully launched another product, and name the members of the launch team. Everyone in the company needs to know and needs to share in the accomplishment. This will go a long way when it’s time to recruit a new launch team for the next product!

Quick and Quirky Example
You are a marketing professional in a company that develops and sells anti-spam software, and your manager has assigned you to be launch team manager for the newest release. Because it’s a highly competitive market, your manager wants to make absolutely sure that there are no slips in the launch schedule. You also have a very aggressive schedule to meet; only 8 weeks. He gives you the authority to go out and recruit whomever you can to participate on the launch team.

Your first meeting is with the other marketing people in your group. You find a marketing communications manager who is very efficient and she agrees to be on the team. You also convince the P.R. liaison to be on the team, even though he has a much bigger launch right before yours.

Next you approach the product manager, who is very, very technical. He is a nice enough guy, but he is a talker. As soon as you start talking about the product, he goes to his whiteboard and launches into a 2-hour discussion about the beauty and elegance of this latest product and how downright cool it is. You wait patiently until he has filled up every last inch of the whiteboard. Even though you have doubts about how he’d work on the team given the tight schedule, you ask him anyway. He is thrilled and flattered to be on the team.

You don’t really have anyone who could act as sales liaison, so you decide that you’ll do that yourself – later. At your launch kickoff meeting, your marketing, technical and P.R. team members contribute lots of good ideas on how to get everything done on the tight schedule. After a brainstorming session, the team agrees on the list of deliverables and the schedule. The next meeting is set up, and you are off and running.

After 2 or 3 weeks of everything running according to schedule, it’s time for you to contact the sales people about the marketing materials. You speak to one of the key sales people who will be selling the product. He is not cooperative. He says, “Hell, no. What’s the point? The marketing people never give us anything useful anyway. We just make it up as we go along when we’re in the field on a sales call. It’s not even worth my time.” Then he hung up. Uh oh.

You call together an emergency meeting of the launch team to get some ideas. The marketing communications person suggests just updating what they provided for the last product and leaving it at that. The P.R. person is clueless. The product manager asks who the sales person was. When you tell him, he lights up and says that he had gone out on several sales calls with the guy before, acting as sales engineer for the previous product. He volunteers to contact the guy about doing a “preview” meeting about the product and surreptitiously find out what types of materials the sales people might need to sell it. You are relieved and set up another meeting with the product manager to put together a strategy.
When you meet with the product manager, you have to endure another hour of whiteboard doodling about what he will tell the sales person. However, this time it’s not so bad. Because he was willing to “multi-task” and play a dual role on the launch team (technical rep and sales liaison), he will actually end up helping the team meet the schedule. And that’s what teamwork is all about. Go team, kill that spam!

I hope your launch teams score lots of touchdowns. (oh, and Go Niners!!)

Catherine Kitcho
The Launch Doctor