Launching New Products

From the creator of Product Launch Formula: A new edition of the #1 New York Times best-selling guide that's redefined online marketing and helped countless entrepreneurs make millions. The revised and updated edition of the #1 New York Times bestseller Launch will build your business - fast. Whether you've already got an online business or you're itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction and a fast start. Think about it: What if you could launch like Apple or the big Hollywood studios? What if your prospects eagerly counted down the days until they could buy your product? And you could do it no matter how humble your business or budget? Since 1996, Jeff Walker has been creating hugely successful online launches. After bootstrapping his first Internet business from his basement, he quickly developed a process for launching new products and businesses with unprecedented success. And once he started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking. Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that brought in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars. Whether you have an existing business or you're starting from scratch, this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success. Now the question is this: Do you want to start slow, and fade away from there? Or are you ready for a launch that will change the future of your business and your life?

The goals of this book are to discuss critical topics in launching new products, and to distill successful approaches from hundreds of publications and experience from launching over 50 new products into a checklist for marketing leaders, CEOs, and board members. The function of this checklist is to force consideration and completion of tasks that drive a successful product launch.

Iteration rules product development, but it isn't enough to produce dramatic results. This book champions Radical Product Thinking, a systematic methodology for building visionary, game-changing products. In the last decade, we've learned to harness the power of iteration to innovate faster—we've invested in a fast car, but our ability to set a clear destination and navigate to it hasn't kept up. When we iterate without a clear vision or strategy, our products become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” that often kill innovation. Radical Product Thinking (RPT) gives organizations a repeatable model for building world-changing products. The key? Being vision-driven instead of iteration-led. R. Dutt guides readers through the five elements of the methodology (vision, strategy, prioritization, execution and measurement, and culture) to develop a clear process for translating vision into reality, and turning RPT skills into muscle memory. This book offers refreshing solutions to the shortcomings of our current model for product development; be prepared to toss out everything you know about a good vision and learn how to measure progress to create revolutionary products. The best part? You don't have to be a natural-born visionary to produce extraordinary results.

Every year, 6 million companies and more than 100,000 products are launched. They all need an awesome name, but many (such as Xobni, Svbtle, and Doostang) look like the results of a drunken Scrabble game. In this entertaining and engaging book, ace naming consultant Alexandra Watkins explains how anyone—even noncreative types—can create memorable and buzz-worthy brand names. No degree in linguistics required. The heart of the book is Watkins's proven SMILE and SCRATCH Test—two acronyms for what makes or breaks a name. She also provides up-to-date advice, like how to make sure that Siri spells your name correctly and how to nab an available domain name. And you'll see dozens of examples—the good, the bad, and the “so bad she gave them an award.” Alexandra Watkins is not afraid to name names.

Although regularly introducing new products or services is the lifeblood of most industries, bringing them to market can be fraught with peril. Timing, cost, and quality all play important roles in a successful product launch and avoiding expensive — often in more than just dollars — recalls and redesigns. Quality Assurance: Applying Methodologies for Launching New Products, Services, and Customer Satisfaction details continual improvement (CI), a proven process for avoiding common problems and creating customer satisfaction. The book explores the three fundamental approaches required to create a truly CI culture in any organization: a) consistent philosophy of improvement by management, b) receptive organizational culture, and c) the entire culture of the organization must be willing to make decisions based on measurement and data. It outlines the seven principles: research/plan, assure, explain, prioritize, demonstrate, confirm, and show. However, as with CI itself, this attitude must be incorporated into the processes of any organization and create products or services for the market place that will delight customers rather than just satisfying them. Time and cost constraints are the biggest culprits here, not any one person’s lack of due diligence. When this happens, organizations must look at the bigger picture internally and identify it as a system problem. Based on the author’s 35 years of experience, this book covers the essential items for doing the right thing the first time especially during launching a good product and/or service to the customer. It identifies key indicators and methodologies that will help you attain excellent performance, delivery, and cost with both the customer and supplier. In other words, by following these methodologies and indicators, the job will get done right the first time.

Perspective is key to visualizing a space and communicating an idea to others. This book explains how to tackle perspective with hand sketching - how to turn a 3D scene into a 2D drawing successfully. Written for a wide range of professionals from architects to set designers, engineers to interior designers, it explains the principles of perspective clearly and how to communicate a vision successfully. Topics covered include: materials and equipment, specifically with drawing on location in mind; observational drawing using the body, arms and hands to help understand the spaces being drawn; perspective constructions for one and two vanishing points for interior and exterior drawings; panoramic views and aerial perspective - how to approach drawing a crowded scene/location; adding detail - whether creating atmosphere and expression, or adding figures for scale and finally, advice is given on drawing imaginatively and how to visualize your thoughts confidently. It is fully illustrated with examples of how to draw perspective in the urban and natural landscape.

Marketing professionals will be able to leverage the power of a successful new product launch with these experience-tested strategies. High-profile case studies from legendary brands including Procter & Gamble, Kellogg's, Lee Jeans, Pepperidge Farm, and Hewlett Packard highlight the pitfalls to avoid and the strategies to employ in a launch campaign. Statistical research and interviews explain key issues at each step of the launch-planning process such as who should serve on the team and how to time the launch, presenting a clear, compelling blueprint for product launch success.

The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use