Ensuring New Product Launch Success

A product is only as good as its launch.

While that might be a bold statement, any IT or UC product’s initial success is determined by the success of its user adoption.

When users don’t understand a new product or feel confident navigating it, they won’t use it, and a product that’s not used is just that – useless.

Not only do you need to come out with a great product that solves a problem in the landscape, but you also must set the stage for the product to be used correctly and fully. That means you need to announce the launch in advance, explain its purposes clearly, and offer accessible and varied training that speaks to different learning types upon rollout.

In this article, we’ll cover what you should consider as a UC provider when looking to launch a new product (or feature), like training and support portals, notifications, and landing pages. We’ll also share the valuable ways in which B-Lynk can support you through your most successful launch yet.

The Frustration and Complications of a New Launch

Anytime a UC provider launches a new product or a new feature for an existing product, there are challenges. While these challenges are only natural, they must still be addressed.

One of the first issues you may run into is unsure or hesitant users. There may be users who still don’t feel up-to-date or on-board with some or all of your past products/features. Throwing in a new product just adds to it, making the “unknown” look more intimidating than before.

On the other hand, there may also be users who are resistant because they are so comfortable with your older products or a legacy product that they want to avoid further change.

Humans naturally resist change, and this is no different. You will need to work against our natural inclinations that, for hundreds of thousands of years, have kept us safe through our fear of what’s new. Now, we don’t need to worry that a new berry may poison us. But those hard-wired instincts haven’t gone away.

Once you move past the resistance, the next frustration typically comes from a lack of understanding. When users want to adopt but are missing key functions and capabilities, it leads to a much slower adoption process and can create inefficiencies in business productivity.

Luckily, there’s a way to launch new products or features that will excite and empower your users to take advantage of all the new capabilities available to them.

New Product or Feature Launch: Tips You Need

If you’re planning for a new product launch soon, set yourself up for success by integrating the following tips into your launch plan. (Don’t have a launch plan? Take this as your sign to create one.)

  1. Start with a Launch Announcement – Your first external communication should be a launch announcement before the actual product release. A good launch announcement can re-engage current customers thinking of switching and reduce churn, improve loyalty and boost retention among current customers, and break down the natural human barriers that are resistant to change.
  2. Educate and Align – Does your target audience know why you’re launching this new product and how it will make their lives better? Make sure to educate your end-users on what problem the new product or feature solves so they are aligned with your vision and objectives.
  3. Set Goals for Training and Support – Create goals or benchmarks for your users to gauge their adoption progress through training. Revisit these goals frequently and reinforce concepts or functions as needed.
  4. Accessible Training, Diverse Content – Create a training and support portal that is accessible and provides training in different formats like online tutorials, videos, etc. to best serve various learning styles.
  5. Make Training and Support Convenient – Does your training make their lives easier or add another layer to the puzzle? Make it easy for end-users to find training and support through web banners on your company’s intranet and landing pages with informational videos for all of your new products or features.

How B-Lynk can help

In addition to the above tips, you can get hands-on help from the experts from B-Lynk. Before your next launch happens, we can support you in several ways.

We specialize in UC end-user training, so we can create informational training videos, tutorials, how-to articles, and more custom-tailored to your specific product offering.

Once you have a library of training and support content we create for you, we can also help you design and create a landing page dedicated to your latest launch so that your users know exactly where to go for the most up-to-date information and training content.

We can even design personalized web banners to announce launches to users and drive them to the appropriate training pages to ensure your launch is a success from the start.

To learn more about our services and solutions geared toward product launches and training, contact our team today.