You don’t need a big product launch, it will most likely lead to failure anyway (crosspost from /r/entrepreneur)

[oscarwip]

Why does a big product launch almost always mean a failed product in tech, think products like:

• Airtime (Spent millions in marketing) competing with Chat Roulette and lost)
• Google Glass (Sergey Brin parachuting into Moscone Center)
• Quibi (Currently spending millions, but looks like they will fail)

Then we have the biggest tech products and they never had a launch:

• Google
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• The company that I founded and now has 46 million users (can't say the name as it breaks the rules here)

Here is why you should never invest in a big launch. If the product is bad it is a waste of money, if the product is great they will find the product anyway.

Great products release early, listen to their users, and improve. You can’t do that if you do a big launch. A big launch means a finished product. A tech product is never “finished” on the first launch.

Am I wrong? Give me examples that prove the opposite?

 

[sgs]

@oscarwip Viagra

 

[lucasjomar]

@sgs Well...it was a small launch at first.....

 

[sgs]

@lucasjomar They were originally planning a soft launch. Granted it was a hard market to enter, but they really managed to thrust themselves into the limelight. Now they get to bask in the afterglow.

 

[oscarwip]

@sgs I guess that was a BIG launch, but the product was pretty well tested as it hit the street. There was a pretty unique demand.

 

[613jono]

@oscarwip noob here.. how would you relate that back to the idea of something like an MVP? If big launch is not the way to go how did you do it? What is the minimum you would launch with?

If the minimum required to be viable is pretty high does that imply the product doesn't provide enough value from the onset? These are things I've been struggling with recently.

 

[oscarwip]

@613jono It certainly relates back to the MVP in the way that I'm a big believer in the MVP. Doing a jig launch usually means that you don't go for an MVP and that is the problem.

This is tricky, but the word is viable and the product has to be viable. You should always challenge that and make the product as small as possible.

 

[613jono]

@oscarwip Iphone

 

[oscarwip]

@613jono Although Apple is very successful at the "first launch" the iPhone really wasn't that successful from day one. It was not a very good phone and there was no App Store. They launched the App Store one year later. Even for Apple, it took a few releases before it was a success and I would argue that Apple spent A LOT more money on any launch in 2019 than they did in 2007.

 

[613jono]

@oscarwip

iPhone really wasn't that successful from day one

Are you serious? It was the definition of launch that turned a major industry on it head and made Apple what it is today.

 

[oscarwip]

@613jono Dead serious and really not arguing with the success of the iPhone, you are 100% right. My argument is that it was not because of a big launch. They released at the right time and over the next 1-2 years, it became the world-changing product it still is today. Again, I would argue they spent more money, did a bigger launch the years after 2007 and therefore the 2007 launch really wasn't a big blast compared to what Apple really can do.