How to not do basic mistakes when shipping your product

It’s launch day for your product or feature. What a thrill. You’re probably exhausted. Your team is half-awake. But that dopamine of “deploying to production” is very real. This is also the moment most PMs make basic mistakes. Here’s how to be ready for shipping:

[1] 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬. When you started thinking about a feature or initiative, there was a “why”. That why turned into a problem space, which then became a solution space. The solution scope you picked had hypothesis behind. “This is our best bet to solving the problem because…”. That “because” needs to be at hand, because now is when you start validating whether you’re right or not.

[2] 𝐃𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩. The “prep” in product means the checklist of steps before or during launch. From implementing analytics, dashboards or tracking, to polishing documentation, finalising the training and sales assets. This is the prep. This is what optimises the likelihood of solving the problem. None of it depends on your engineering or design team, and is as important as putting code in production.

[3] 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬. Many PMs think engineering owns the launch. Just because they control the deployment to production, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be there. From “bringing the doughnuts” to removing blockers or uncertainties, it’s in the trenches that trust is built. 

[4] 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 “𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝”. Until now, every test, research, and prototype you ran gave you hypothetical data. It’s in production that data is made. Too many PMs “burn” their teams up until the shipping moment, leaving no energy for the post-launch. Don’t make this mistake, because the party has just started. 

Each point prevents you from becoming a feature factory, a disempowered product team and a silo-ed process.