Getting Ready for a Product Launch
If you build it, they will come. This is the extent of many peoples’ thought on developing a product such as web-based software.
And of course, initially, when a great product idea pops into our heads, that is what we tend to focus on as well….product development.
Then reality comes a knockin’ and as development is progressing and our Master Shipbuilder, Chris, is in programming hell, I, the designer…start realizing everything else that needs to be done prior to launch. Things such as:
- Product website
- Help documentation
- Forums
- Marketing
- Support
- Payments
Now, of course, if one already has other products on the market, some of this is already in place, such as Forums, Support and Payment systems. Others, need to be done each and every time. This is where a small level of panic starts to set in, and I join my partner in hell 
All of this is par for the course however. The only truly scary part for me is the marketing. I am no sales person, and doing the whole social networking thing is difficult enough. I think, first order of business, is to find someone to take this on for us!
