GTM Launch Activity List
This page documents many of the activities that should be considered for product & feature launches. For any given launch, it’s likely that only a subset of these activities will be completed; this serves as a guide for the team to build launch plans based on the context of the launch.
Awareness / Launch moment activities
Press outreach
What is it: The Comms team can pitch news outlets to cover the launch. Ideally, this leads to outlets (like VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Business Insider) publishing articles about the launch on their own sites, which can generate a lot of traffic to Sourcegraph. As a tradeoff, this sometimes requires us to follow news embargos.
When it makes sense: Large launches with features that are generally exciting or buzzworthy to the tech market. Incremental and smaller feature releases won’t be as exciting to news outlets, but big launches—like AI advancements—will be.
Collaborate with: Comms team.
How to do it: The Comms team should be made aware of the launch as early as possible (1.5 months or more pre-launch). This will allow them time to help draft the narrative that will be attractive to news outlets.
Analyst Relations - Analyst briefing
What is it: Briefing calls to inform the research firm analysts (Gartner, Forrester) about our product, roadmap, and recent innovations.
When it makes sense: Primarily for big launches or significant changes to the product.
Collaborate with: Product and Comms teams.
How to do it: Work with Gartner to schedule briefings with the Code AI category analysts.
Launch blog
What is it: A blog post articulating what is launching, who it impacts, and why it’s beneficial.
When it makes sense: Almost always. A launch blog is one of the simplest ways to articulate & share launch news.
Collaborate with: Product Manager for the product/feature (PM or PMM typically authors the post).
How to do it: The blog post can provide a strong basis for the launch narrative, so it’s beneficial to start the post early as a “source of truth” for other activities. Typically this means drafting the post 3-4 weeks pre-launch, then reviewing between the PM and PMM to refine the narrative.
Technical blog
What is it: A blog about a technical concept closely related to the launch (e.g. how we built this). Historically, these blogs have had the most success landing on Hacker News, so they have the potential to bring lots of traffic to the marketing site.
When it makes sense: For medium or larger launches, whenever there is a strong topic candidate.
Collaborate with: The blog author; typically a PM or engineer.
How to do it: Start searching for, and collecting topics, as early as possible. It can be difficult to find great topics with someone available to write. The author is often an engineer, which means that PMM takes a slightly different role in editing the blog but not contributing directly. Be considerate to ask how much involvement the author would like from marketing.
Launch video
What is it: A video showing off what is being released, often paired with the launch blog.
When it makes sense: For medium to large releases, with features that are visually exciting to a general audience. Launch videos don’t always get high views by themselves - they need to be promoted appropriately, so these make most sense in launches where they’ll
Collaborate with: Creative Ops for creative support, plus other video contractors as necessary.
How to do it: Start by drafting the story you want to tell with the video, and get broader reviews of the written draft at this stage before moving on to capturing footage or creating the video. Reviews and revisions typically become more difficult in the recording/editing stage. From here, the process will depend on the type of video and who is creating it (in-house teams or a contractor).
Announcement email (Sourcegraph.com users)
What is it: An email to our Sourcegraph.com subscriber base.
When it makes sense: Almost always, unless the launch is small and another email has been sent very recently.
Collaborate with: Marketing Ops.
How to do it: Emails don’t have a very long turnaround time since they don’t require heavy creative support, and they’re typically best written after the launch narrative is refined. Start drafting the email ~2 weeks prior to launch.
Customer comms (email / Slack message)
What is it: A message intended to go to all of our users. This is typically done by drafting copy that AEs & TAs can share in customer Slack accounts, or by email where it makes sense.
When it makes sense: Whenever the launch is notable for customers.
Collaborate with: Technical Success.
How to do it: Work with TS as soon as we know what the launch will look like. TS will advise on how the message should be shared with customers — e.g. via Slack. Also, collaborate with TAs to get their reviews on the copy before it is final.
Livestream
What is it: A livestream showing off what is new to build excitement around the launch features.
When it makes sense: For medium or larger launches where the features are very exciting and have potential to draw an engaged audience.
Collaborate with: Events team, DevRel, and Demand Gen.
How to do it: A livestream event is only as successful as the amount of attendance it has, so awareness of the event is critical. Typically this should be planned very early—6+ weeks ahead of the launch—so that promotion for the event can start 2+ weeks before the event date. It should ideally be planned on launch day for big launches.
Website announcement banner
What is it: An announcement banner that is posted at the top of the marketing site, with copy of the announcement plus a link (typically to the launch blog).
When it makes sense: For most coordinated launches, outside of very small increment releases (e.g. biweekly extension releases).
Collaborate with: Creative Ops.
How to do it: PMM typically prepares the desired copy, link, and timing for the banner to go up and be taken down. Work with Creative Ops to get this implemented on the marketing site.
Organic social media promotion & employee toolkits (Twitter / LinkedIn)
What is it: Promotional posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. Also, a “toolkit” with posts that employees can easily copy & paste to their own socials.
When it makes sense: Always.
Collaborate with: DevRel.
Pathfinders promotion
What it is: Working with our community advocate (Pathfinders) to trial early software, provide early testimonials, and promote the product within the community. TBD on more details as the Pathfinders program comes to maturity.
When it makes sense: For launches of community / free-tier products.
Collaborate with: DevRel.
Demand Gen campaigns
What is it: Paid campaigns that use the new feature/product as a basis for messaging. This can be through ad network campaigns, newsletter campaigns (e.g. dev influencers), or social campaigns.
When it makes sense: Typically this makes sense when something is being released that introduces new messaging or a value proposition that we suspect will work with prospective audiences.
Collaborate with: Demand Gen.
How to do it: Share the launch plan with Shannon as early as possible to discuss how relevant the release will be for prospects. From there, collaborate on messaging that can be used for campaigns.
Dev community posts
What is it: Posts in dev communities such as HackerNews and Reddit. The basis of the post typically should be a blog post. For HN, we’ve historically found technical blog posts (that are less self-serving) to work best.
When it makes sense: For any release that benefits the general community, particularly free-tier users (this community will be less excited about enterprise releases, like improved scalability).
Collaborate with: DevRel.
How to do it: Work with Ado to determine which communities to post to and what content (e.g. blog post) should get posted. HackerNews posts are difficult to control, since we prefer to have non-Sourcegraphers post them, but other communities (like subreddits) are easier for us to post to directly.
Evergreen launch content
Product page (or existing page update)
What is it: A page on the marketing website
When it makes sense: For new products, or for major updates to existing products that are featured on our website.
Collaborate with: Design and Creative Ops.
How to do it: Notify Creative Ops as early as possible, especially if it will be a net-new page for a new product.
Homepage update
What is it: Updates to the marketing website homepage to represent the new feature/product.
When it makes sense: For new product releases, major feature releases, or repositioning/renaming of existing products.
Collaborate with: Creative Ops and Design.
How to do it: Homepage changes can vary widely in scope; set a kickoff meeting with Creative Ops and Design early to agree on scope and timeline for the project. Then, work from there to decide ownership & responsibilities.
Pricing page update
What is it: An update to the pricing page for new products, pricing changes, or significant new features that should be listed on the page.
When it makes sense: For any significant net-new feature releases.
Collaborate with: Creative Ops and Chief of Staff.
How to do it: Connor owns pricing; share a document with proposed changes early to him, and use that to get feedback and agreement on the changes. Let Creative Ops know of the changes coming a few weeks in advance so that it can be prioritized against the backlog for GitStart.
Docs updates
What is it: Updates to product documentation to reflect the new releases.
When it makes sense: Always.
Collaborate with: Docs.
How to do it: Post in #docs to start planning updates early, several weeks before launch. PMM should supply messaging for docs to be consistent.
Enablement
Sales enablement meeting / recording
What is it: A session covering the basics of the product/feature for GTM teams. Scope varies significantly depending on the new feature.
When it makes sense: For features or products that change our messaging or positioning, or features with significant user impact.
Collaborate with: Product and Sales Enablement.
How to do it: Start planning with Sales Enablement as early as possible - typically 4-6 weeks pre-launch. PMM typically provides technical content, and Sales Enablement provides direction on what content is needed and how it will best be delivered.
Demo scripts & recordings
What is it: Scripts + recordings of how to demo the new features or products.
When it makes sense: Whenever the new features are exciting from a UX perspective and have the potential to materially change GTM demos. This is always the case for new products, and often the case for new user-facing features (and less often the case for admin-specific, deployment-based, or security/scalability features).
Collaborate with: Product and Sales Enablement.
How to do it: Work with the product manager to determine when the product UX will be final and available to create demo content. Work with Sales Enablement to determine how to roll out the demo (e.g. in HighSpot or in live sessions).
Outbound messaging
What is it: Messaging for SDRs in their prospecting emails
When it makes sense: When there is a new feature or product that significantly changes our positioning or value proposition to the market.
Collaborate with: SDR leadership.
How to do it: Collaborate with Andrew once you know general messaging & positioning for the new features or product. From there, work with him to create messaging that can go into the outbound messaging library. It’s likely that this will need to be paired with some amount of sales enablement.