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Introduction
So… you’ve just joined a new company and you realize that there is zero process for product launches. Or maybe you’ve been there for a while and you’re reaching a point where every launch feels ad hoc and random.
Chances are, it’s time to start considering a more formalized process for how you handle product launches. One of the first steps is to define your launch tiering framework.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create your company’s launch tiering playbook and get alignment with your product team.
Why Do You Need Launch Tiers?
The Difference Between Releases & Launches
To set the stage for launch tiers, let’s talk about the difference between releases and launches.
A release is an engineering and product term. It’s when the team pushes code to production. This is about making products or features available for people to use.
A launch, on the other hand, is a go to market event that delivers value to the customers and the business.
Your business won’t get value from a feature you’ve pushed into the product (released) but have not told anyone about it or how to use it (launched).
Our job as product marketers is to launch products in order to drive value for the business and our customers — not just because they’re “done.”
Here are 4 specific differences between releases and launches:
- Not every release needs a launch. Some releases can be small, quality of life or UI things that don’t need to be launched.
- Launches can be delayed. You can choose to hold back a launch by a month or a quarter, even though the release is live.
- Launched can be bundled. You could collect many small releases into one larger, more impactful launch. This is one good reason to delay launches.
- Not all launches are created equal. Some launches can be small, some big (and that’s okay!)
It’s important that the releases that need attention actually get it. If you over-sell every launch, you can drown out the important ones.
If every launch made the same amount of noise as an important launch, customers won’t be able to keep up. And you’ll even see diminishing returns because of launch fatigue. In fact, there’s a chance people wouldn’t notice at all.
So how do you decide what launches should be big and which ones should be small?
Introducing Launch Tiers…
What Are Launch Tiers?
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Launch Tiering is a practical framework to prioritize launches and determine the level of GTM effort you’ll expend on them.
Agreeing on the tier of a launch helps you align everyone in your organization around the prioritization of the launches. Each launch should be measured on the release’s impact on driving customer and business value.
There are a ton of launch tier frameworks out there. The one I like to use is Mark Assini’s adaptation of Intercom’s well-known take on product announcements.
Let’s focus on determining your desired launch tier first (we’ll get to the other stuff in a bit). To do that, you and your PM need to ask yourselves two simple questions. What is the business impact and what is the customer impact of your launch?
The x-axis measures Business Impact.
Will the launch increase your win rate? Will this help increase ACV because it’s a good upsell? Is this going to dramatically reduce operating costs to increase your profit margin?
A new product, line, or SKU is going to have a high business impact.
The y-axis, on the other hand, measures Customer Impact.
Does this launch have a direct impact on the value customers get from your product? Will it increase their ability to drive a desired outcome? Or will it dramatically change how they use your product? For example, a small UI tweak likely won’t will go unnoticed. But a total UI overhaul will dramatically impact how they use your product day-to-day.
The latter has a high customer impact.
Use the grid above to determine the launch tier that best fits your new product or feature. From the major P1 launch, down to small P4s.
Remember: This is something that you can 100% adjust and tailor to your business. For example, in a small startup you may decide that 4 tiers is too much. In that case you can just reduce it to three tiers (P1, P2, P3).
How to Run Your First Launch Tiering Alignment Conversation
You may be thinking, “Sure, this is great in theory, but how do I actually get my PM team on the same page.”
Your product team needs to understand and buy into your launch tier system for it to work effectively.
So before you even start planning any launches, you need to sit down with your product manager to get alignment. This helps prevent last-minute scrambles and ensures everyone understands the resources required for different types of launches.
Clear communication and shared ownership make launch tiers work. And getting this right early makes every subsequent launch smoother.
Here are three questions to ask your PM in your first alignment meeting:
- "What's your current process?" Understanding existing launch practices helps you build on what works.
- "How do you prioritize now?" Learn how the team currently thinks about launch importance.
- "What resources are available?" Get clarity on budget, time, and team constraints upfront.
One artifact that can make aligning with your PM(s) easier is the Launch Tiering Playbook. Think of this as your living-breathing internal playbook for how you approach product launches.
This can be something you introduce in your first meeting with your PM, but the approach should be to mould the playbook to what best fits your company and collaborative working style at that moment. You can always update it later.
Tips on Partnering With PMs
Earlier, we discussed the difference between releases and launches. It’s also important to recognize that each of these typically have their own distinct process within your company.
PM and Engineering have their own product development and release process, while product marketing has a process for launch.
Unfortunately, in most companies they both happen separately. Product and engineering pass a completed product to product marketing and ask them to “launch” it.
Instead of a baton pass, you’re launch process should look more like a three-legged race, where product marketing is involved earlier in the release process to help shape the narrative, product, even what makes it onto the roadmap.
That’s why developing the launch Playbook alongside your PM(s) is critical. You both need to define and align on the process together in order for it to stick.
You may be thinking “this sounds nice and all, but my PM team won’t work with me” and that is a totally valid feeling to have. I see it happen ALL the time.
It’s impossible to think that on day one, you’re going to be able to walk into a meeting with your PM or a PM team and expect them to blindly adopt YOUR process.
Here are a few tips on how to “win your way into Product:”
1. Bring value they ask for first
Don’t come in asking them to change things right out of the gate. Instead, ask what they need help and go from there.
2. Perfect the launch motion, then move down the process
Chances are, they want your help figuring out that last mile of the launch. After a few well-executed launch campaigns, you should have more credibility to gain access to earlier stages of the product development process.
3. Don’t scrap their process — evolve it
Don’t call their baby ugly and try to change it over night. Take baby steps and improve it incrementally.
4. Align your goals with theirs
If you want to better align with your PM team, make sure your OKRs overlap. If they care about product adoption tied to launches, you should too.
5. Build 1:1 relationships and trust
You don’t build relationships with a team. You build them with individual people. Try to connect with your PMs 1:1 and build stronger personal relationships. Better alignment will follow.
6. Make small asks, not BIG ones
People are afraid of big changes. So start with small asks and gain momentum.
How to Determine Your Launch Tiers: The 3-Step Prioritization Framework
Step 1: Score Your Launches
The idea here is to align and define what each launch tier means for you.
Ideally, you’re able to sit down with your PM at the start of the year and talk about the roadmap ahead. What are the features launching? And together, what do you think the launch tiers are going to be?
In the Launch Playbook template, you’ll find a handy tool for planning out your launch roadmap and turning it into a timeline you can use to easily spot opportunities for bundled launches, or situations where you need to space out your launches.
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This way, when it comes time to release, you’re aligned on what you need to launch. And it makes it easier to score and schedule your launches, based on the two launch tier factors we talked about earlier:
Key Factor 1: Business Value
- Does this launch have a direct impact on revenue and profit?
- Will it help you acquire customers, increase revenue, or reduce operating costs?
Key Factor 2: Customer Value
- What is the customer’s key outcome from your product?
- Does this launch have a direct impact on the value that customers are going to get from your product?
- Are you going to help them do that more?
For example, the first time I tried scoring launches at Uberflip, we got it completely wrong with our AI feature.
Even though the feature seemed innovative on paper, we hadn't properly assessed its real business and customer value. We were swept up in the excitement of having "AI" rather than measuring true impact. What we learned is that scoring needs to look at the two key dimensions above: business value and customer value.
In contrast, when we scored our ABM launch, we knew we had a P1 because it checked both boxes strongly.
Here are three clear signs you've scored a true P1:
- Sales can't wait to sell it. Our ABM launch had reps asking daily when they could start showing it to customers.
- Customers are asking for it. We had a waitlist of customers requesting this capability.
- Competition can't match it. We were the first to market with this particular approach to ABM.
Step 2: Do You Have the Time, Budget, and People to Execute?
Business Value and Customer Value determine your launch tier in an ideal situation.
Afterwards, you need to look at what resources you actually have on hand to execute your ideal launch. This might mean delaying the launch by a few weeks or bundling releases, then this might open a larger opportunity for you. Initiating these resource conversations also gets you in the habit of aligning expectations between the product and marketing teams.
You don’t need to rush it! The analysis itself can just be a back-of-the-napkin calculation.
Here are the 3 resources you should check before you begin planning your launch:
- How much time do you need for the launch?
- What’s your budget for the launch?
- How many people does this launch need?
The hardest lesson from launches came from not being realistic about resources.
We'd get excited about a potential P1 launch and commit to all the bells and whistles - press releases, videos, interactive demos, comprehensive sales enablement - without checking our actual bandwidth.
Two weeks before launch, we’d discover we didn't have the lead time necessary for video production, or that we were significantly behind on enabling the sales team, forcing a last-minute scramble. It’s experiences like these that taught me to be rigorous about assessing time, budget, and people before committing to a tier.
Reality checks early on prevent painful downgrades later.
Here are three more critical resource lessons I learned the hard way (so you don’t have to):
- Time tells the truth. At Uberflip, our successful ABM launch took 12 weeks of preparation, while rushed launches consistently underperformed.
- People over promise. With a ratio of one PMM to 5+ PMs, we learned to be selective about P1 commitments.
- Buffers save launches. Adding 20% to initial resource estimates saved multiple launches from disaster.
Step 3: Go Forth (Or Adjust)
Unfortunately, you don’t always have the resources you need for every launch. If not, you either need to adjust internal expectations (change your launch tier) or negotiate additional time and resources.
Once you have a methodology for assigning a launch tier, you can then move to deciding what other expectations and marketing tactics fall within each tier.
Work with your PM or PM leadership team to customize the Launch Playbook Template to fit your company.
Final Thoughts
The most important thing is to remember that this is an iterative process. You won’t get it right the first time, or the second. But each launch will get better until you eventually have a rock-solid system for running effective product launches.
Start with the basics, learn from each launch, and gradually add sophistication to your process.
Focus on making impact rather than just making noise.
- Introduction
- Why Do You Need Launch Tiers?
- The Difference Between Releases & Launches
- What Are Launch Tiers?
- How to Run Your First Launch Tiering Alignment Conversation
- Tips on Partnering With PMs
- How to Determine Your Launch Tiers: The 3-Step Prioritization Framework
- Step 1: Score Your Launches
- Step 2: Do You Have the Time, Budget, and People to Execute?
- Step 3: Go Forth (Or Adjust)
- Final Thoughts