I would like to share here one possible way to achieve some balance between non-piblic nature of pre-launch activities and much needed openness with as many existing or potential customers in order to validate product development progression toward desired release objective. This can be done with the help of a controlled user community.
As a Product Manager you can invite your customers, partners and employees from the front lines, who deal directly with your customers, to participate in the collaboration around new product release under development. Compared to traditional beta programs this approach does not have to be limited to a short span of time between code freeze and launch dates, and it offers access to broader more representative audience.
As a Product Manager you can invite your customers, partners and employees from the front lines, who deal directly with your customers, to participate in the collaboration around new product release under development. Compared to traditional beta programs this approach does not have to be limited to a short span of time between code freeze and launch dates, and it offers access to broader more representative audience.
It's important that Product Managers control who gets admitted to this community. Restricting the membership to customers who accept the terms of your collaboration program can help set the expectations for both parties as well as offer you some protection for non-disclosure and other related legal liabilities stemming from using the product version that has not been officially released and is not yet formally supported by your company. In many cases existing beta programs can be leveraged with already available beta agreements providing all the necessary legal coverage needed.
An online user community is a great environment where the product team can collaborate with customers, partners and internal cross-functional teams around ongoing development, exchange ideas, feedback and comments, etc.
As a Product Manager you will need to take the lead as a Community Manager, not only for administrative tasks, but more so to ensure steady membership growth and participation by members. Community Managers seed valuable content attracting more new members and stimulating healthy discussions and debates, while discouraging negative unproductive behaviors. Some valuable content that can be contributed includes posting questions from development team, surveys, sharing screen mockups, diagrams, invitations to webcasts for end of sprint demos and links to recorded presentations. If all goes well, over time, your community will mature and provide invaluable reality check for the product team, as well as early adopter reference platform.
