Skip to content

I massively screwed up a big product launch

And here’s what I decided to do about it

Ten days until launch. Actors booked, the material ready for adoring students. But I stared at my analytics, defeated. Zero signups. The cold reality set in: I had to pull the plug. 

The best products don’t work if they can’t be sold. And mine wasn’t selling. 

I knew I had product gold.  Hours of user research went into developing the product and my first private cohort scored an impressive 4.9/5.

I felt certain it was ready for prime time. I did all the right things – a strong marketing campaign, complete with email, social media, and event strategies – all the things you’re supposed to do. I had hundreds of people sign up for the pre-launch event.

And there I was, realizing that my product launch was a total flop. 

Product marketing needs to be involved early on

I had fallen for the classic “build it and they will come” fallacy. Even the best products don’t sell themselves. 

At least I was in good company – according to the late Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen, 95% of product launches fail

I had done great product management – my user research led to a highly engaging and effective course. But, as many product managers do, I had forgotten to loop marketing in early enough to make sure the product could sell. 

The irony: as a solopreneur, I’m also the marketing department. 

My first cohort was private. Once I had sold the manager on the course, the team was signed up automatically. The manager and I were able to have a discussion about the product, so the title and description didn’t matter too much. Then the high ratings came in, and I fell under the spell of complacency.

But selling to the public is totally different. 

My course needs to stand out from every other one on the platform, people need to see a clear value proposition. Prospective students couldn’t hop on the phone with me – my copywriting needed to sell itself. 

At least I get the opportunity to launch again. 

Second time’s the charm (I hope)

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. After the failed launch, I ran a survey, new interviews, and got some detailed feedback from my audience in order to relaunch the course. 

Lucky for me, I had several hundred people who had signed up for my original course promotion event but hadn’t signed up for the course.

I sent them a one-question email poll that led into a longer survey.

I sent a one-question poll to everyone on my waitlist, asking why they didn't enroll.
I sent a one-question poll to everyone on my waitlist, asking why they didn’t enroll.

80% of my responses were “price” and “timing”. To me, this indicated that I had something that people weren’t willing to make the time for or invest in. It indicated an overall lack of passion for what I was selling. 

The follow-up survey confirmed this. Only 35% of the people who attended the launch event were “very interested” in the course – that’s a sign that something in my messaging wasn’t clicking. I had marketed a very appealing launch event, but my course didn’t have the same level of appeal.


A pie chart showing 35% of respondents were "very interested" in the course, 42% were "somewhat interested", and 21% were "neutral".
A pie chart showing 35% of respondents were “very interested” in the course, 42% were “somewhat interested”, and 21% were “neutral”.

People who completed the survey were then invited for a user research call. A few patterns emerged:

  • Some people didn’t know that the launch event was promoting a course at all – I had an awareness problem.
  • Others believed they were pretty advanced in the topic and just wanted to hear from my guest speaker – not everyone who signed up was my ICP. 
  • The job market is terrible right now, and some of my audience were jobseekers who didn’t have the capacity to invest in professional development right now.

I had several misalignments between the marketing I had done and the audience I was marketing to.

Shifting from finance to business case

My course had been called “Pricing and Finance for Product People”, and while lots of product managers want to learn more about those topics, most of them don’t feel like their current job demands those skills from them.

This looks like a nod in user research “yeah, that sounds cool, I could be interested.” But people weren’t replying to my questions saying that they were struggling with pricing and finance right now. There was a lot of “I could use that, someday.” 

So I instead asked what skills were being demanded in their jobs right now. I mapped that against my course material. 

An obvious answer emerged: business case development.

The word “pricing” had been throwing people off because most product managers don’t get a say in setting pricing. But most product managers are expected to write business cases. 

100% of my content applies to creating great business cases. Writing compelling business cases requires understanding pricing, finance, and creating a strong narrative to sell it. 

I had my new positioning. I drafted my landing page and sent it to a few additional people for feedback to confirm. 

A business case needs to include marketing

I see too many product teams make the same mistake I did – moving forward with a product and expecting marketing to catch up at the end. 

A great business case will include marketing from the beginning – go-to-market strategies presented alongside product insights. 

So why did I miss this in creating the plan for my own course? Because I made an exception. 

I told myself that because I’m a team of one, I didn’t need to build a business case. I had nobody to build alignment with, the plan was simple, and I could keep track of it in my head.

But the point of building out a business case isn’t just to get alignment – it’s a checklist that makes sure you’ve gone through all the steps that increase the likelihood of a successful product. (If you want to learn how to do this yourself, you can enroll in the course here.)

This is the point of product operations – not to add processes and templates with no point, but to make sure the steps are in place that lead to more successful product launches. 

Next time? I’ll be building out my business case from the beginning and sending it to myself for a marketing review before moving forward.

Because let’s be honest – who wants to write a letter to thousands of people telling the story of how they skipped a critical step and ended up with a learning experience? It’s easier to have the launch go right the first time around.

Without the help of my pre-reader, this article would have felt like it was jumping all over the place. Thank you, Dee Bernier (#OpenToWork), for your great feedback.