Developing a data driven company

7 launch day data mistakes to avoid

Launch day can be truly exciting but having a failed launch or being uncertain of how your launch is received can quickly drain away all the excitement. With our years of experience, we’ve discovered these 7 common launch day data mistakes that make a new product launch fall flat. Don’t fret as these mistakes can be fixed if you catch them early however, before launching, you’ll need to make major investments.

1. Failing to define key product metrics before launch

Looking at vanity metrics alone can make it easy to solidify your bias of the things you want to actually see like “we’ve hit product-market fit or customers love our products!”

However, with vanity metrics, you don’t see the harsh realities that could lead to product success when given due attention. What you should do is identify the metrics that will show your failures and align them with end user value such as the number of accounts flowing to your data warehouse a month after it is launched. You can measure the first point in your funnel where a customer gets value as a success instead of focusing on metrics like landing page views, launch email opens and new sign ups. Your launch metrics should align with providing customer value.

2. Failure to align launch day success criteria

Having the right metrics is not all you need to have a successful product launch day. You also have to define exactly what success is and be truthful about whether or not you think you can achieve it. The core elements need to be consistent

• Outcomes: you should have a clear definition of scenarios for both successful and downside outcomes.
• Metrics: identify the launch metrics that are important and list them.
• Trending: update your team on the relevant metrics and stoplight trends

Before the day your product launches, align your team around some few successful scenarios and their probabilities and outcomes.

3. Not implementing the right tools to measure the launch

It’s also important to have the correct tools available to measure your success properly.

Dashboards

You have to set up dashboards for measuring your launch like real-time dashboards and even tie together several channels. You can also create a data warehouse with tools like Looker or Mode.

Sales enablement

Your sales development team will need to be fed new leads as they sign up. Workflows like Zapier are good for this.

Session replay

Use a heat mapping or recording tool to iterate on the user experience and design so your team understands the way customers will use the products and what challenges they may run into.

Livechat

Livechats are great for connecting with and converting users plus it’s a quick way for your users to get in touch with you when they run into issues. We advise livechats with customers on launch day so you can gather information on what parts of the product need to be smoothed out. We advise that you set up your livechat tools and test them before launch day.

4. Missing tracking important steps in the funnel

Your company should have a comprehensive tracking plan so you understand the journey your customers take with your new product. It can be pretty frustrating when customers don’t get to the end of your funnel especially when you have no idea why. This is why it’s important to think the core steps in your funnel through and ensure they are being tracked.

5. Relying on client- side tracking critical events

You can either track customer data from the server or the client depending on the context i.e easy access to gathering enough data or reliability i.e the level of control you have over how and where the data is sent. The client is the device or the users’ browser where specific user attributes are easily gathered like cookies or UTM parameters nut with client-side tracking, there can be interference from tools like browser plugins and Ad Blockers or network issues which can lead to blind spots with your tracking and using the server for tracking allows you to have more accuracy and control however you don’t get the same quality as you would from the browser.

6. Failing to test tracking before launch

Although it seems like an obvious thing that needs to be done, a lot of teams tend to overlook doing this. Companies should test tracking just as much as you test user experience and tracking before a new flow is launched. This helps you know if your product meets your customers’ needs and will help your brand grow. You’ll also be able to test things like how long it takes a user to finish a task and what path led a user to take a particular step in your funnel so you can answer similar questions that come up in the future.

7. Not monitoring the impact of new products on other parts of the company

When you launch a new product, you need to be sure it contributes positively to the growth of your company and does nothing to affect the progress you’ve made. Monitor the effects of your new product launch to see if affects things like conversions to sign ups, customers that check out and other parts of your funnel in the short term. You also need to consider how the new product will impact churn, LTV, your customer base demographic, competitive advantage and so on. Launch day is exciting no doubt but we must ensure it leaves no negative impact on other important business metrics.