How long should a B2B product launch take?
There is no single correct number. The honest answer is that launch length is set by how much of the work is already done before anyone picks a date.
Written thinking from Sam and Dave on cybersecurity, marketing, and GTM. Guides, straight answers, and notes from the field.
There is no single correct number. The honest answer is that launch length is set by how much of the work is already done before anyone picks a date.
If marketing first hears about a product or major feature when someone asks for the launch campaign, they're already late.
A launch plan isn’t just a list of marketing activities with a date at the top. It should connect the market, message, teams, activity, and measures around the launch.
Not every new feature needs the full launch machine. Treating every release like a major product launch wastes effort and makes the launches that really matter harder to spot.
When a B2B launch underperforms, the campaign is an easy target. Often, the real problem appeared much earlier.
Understanding marketing and understanding the market you’re selling into are two different things. For technology companies, that distinction matters.
Not every person in a cybersecurity marketing team needs a cybersecurity background. But market understanding becomes increasingly important as marketing gets closer to strategic decisions.
Virtual CISO, vCISO, and Fractional CISO are labels that get used almost interchangeably. The distinction worth understanding isn’t really between “virtual” and “fractional”, it’s between an engagement built around senior security leadership and one built around a list of activities.
The technology had been created for a perfectly sensible reason. The problem wasn’t the idea. It was what customers would experience when we shipped it.