Maximizing Product Launch Success with Process Mapping
Are you feeling unsure about whether your organization is ready to support the launch of your new product or service? Do the other departments know their role in supporting your new line of business? Will your current sales process work with your new product? Are you ready to invoice and collect revenue?
Years ago, I was tasked with launching a new services business within an organization that only sold hard goods. To be honest, I assumed that the various functions within our company would know how to sell, contract, support, and invoice my new line of services. I was wrong.
How do you get the peace of mind that when you launch everything is going to “work”? A good first step is Cross-Functional Process Mapping. The process for launching and supporting a product is jointly designed to ensure all of the key teams are aligned.
I know, many people cringe at the words Process Mapping, however, building a customer-focused and efficient process will help ensure a smooth launch and is key to long-term product success. Process mapping helps you determine the ideal workflow, processes, tools, and systems to support your new product.
- Gets entire team on the same page with respect to the customer journey and the process needed to support that journey
- Gets alignment and buy in across the team and builds momentum leading up to launch
- Maps processes to support the customer journey and ensures processes are designed for a great customer experience
- Identifies roles and responsibilities and highlights resources required to support the process
- Identifies the tools, systems, etc. needed to support those processes
- Documents assumptions, and identifies any issues and risks
- Enhances current processes as needed to reflect and support a growing line of products
- Standardizes and documents the process so that it is clear and understandable
- Provides a tool that can be used to communicate process to the rest of the company so that customers can be optimally serviced and supported
When I did this for my new service launch, bringing in third-party objective facilitators to help keep the progress rolling and to serve as a referee in challenging discussions helped add to the success.
Feel free to reach out to learn more about my experience!
Karie Starrett
karie@clearworks.net
