Help users plan and execute product launches. Use when someone is planning a product launch, preparing PR outreach, coordinating a go-to-market campaign, launching on Product Hunt, or asking how to generate buzz for a new feature or product.
Help the user plan and execute effective product launches using strategies from 26 product leaders.
When the user asks for help with a product launch:
Arielle Jackson: "For early stage startups, we're almost always running the launch announcement as an exclusive, which means you give the news to a single outlet." Identify a single target outlet that covers companies at your stage. Offer the story exclusively to one reporter at a time.
Arielle Jackson: "Don't do a straight funding announcement. Use that funding as a news hook to tell a larger story - your product's available, you have reference customers, you have momentum." Combine funding news with a product launch or partnership to make it interesting to readers.
Janna Bastow: "Decoupling the technical release (soft launch) from the marketing event (hard launch) reduces stress and improves marketing quality." Soft launch first to gather functional videos and testimonials. Use the period between launches to plan a high-impact campaign based on the final product.
Bret Taylor: "Satellite imagery wasn't the most important part of Google Maps, but it was the sizzle to the steak and it created a viral moment." Identify a visually impressive or shareable feature that generates buzz, even if it isn't the primary use case.
Christopher Lochhead: "What if you launched like Hollywood launches a movie? I'd rather matter for one week a year than be irrelevant for the rest of the year." Concentrate marketing efforts into 1-2 massive events per year rather than spreading budget thinly over time. Be unavoidable to your target audience for a short window.
Lulu Cheng Meservey: "You go out in concentric circles starting from your own desk. First get clear on your message, then co-founders, executives, employees, investors, power users, and out from there." Ensure each inner circle is fully aligned before moving to the next. Internal alignment protects external credibility.
Lulu Cheng Meservey: "Find the Venn diagram of people who will be obsessed with this product AND have a large following among your target audience. Shower them with free product." Target the intersection of high product affinity and high audience influence for organic evangelism.
Zoelle Egner: "PR is not going to get you leads or users. What it is good for is credibility - hiring or improving the response rate for your cold outbound." Use press coverage as social proof in recruiting emails and sales outreach. Don't rely on it for direct user acquisition.
Jason Feifer: "Sometimes the point isn't to reach the readers at all. Put money behind promoting the tweet about your coverage to the people you want to notice you got coverage." The "As seen in" logo on your website may be more valuable than the article's direct traffic.
Zoelle Egner: "Instead of one big launch, have a series of launches that allow you to stay top of mind and create momentum. Audiences respond to novelty." Plan launches every few months to re-engage communities and maintain presence.
Emilie Gerber: "Before an announcement, you want to kick off six weeks in advance - working on the blog, media training, outreach, getting investor quotes." Prioritize reporter availability over internal deadlines. Be flexible on dates to secure quality coverage.
Chris Hutchins: "Ranking charts are driven by momentum of new subscribers, not total volume. Launch with multiple pieces of content to build early momentum." For platform-based launches (podcasts, Product Hunt), focus on concentrated activity in a short window to trigger algorithmic boost.
For all 42 insights from 26 guests, see references/guest-insights.md