The journey to a product launch can seem incredibly long. However, the final steps in polishing a product for commercial availability cannot be ignored. Doing so risks sinking the product or at least slowing its adoption.
Commercial Products are Different
A key point of this episode is that commercial software carries higher expectations than other types. Whether it feels that way or not, there is far less selling required for other applications. Bugs are part of any application, but workarounds and delays to fixes are easier to forgive for personal and internal applications. A customer that paid money for your product is not going to be happy to hear that they need to “outsmart” a bug rather than it being fixed.
A Product Launch is More Than “Ship It”
The details are what make a commercial product. Many of these features and aspects are easy to forget. They are just that pervasive. Things like documentation, install guides, user manuals, useful technical documentation, system requirements, and more, are all needed. Your future customers are new to your product so they need to be told how to get started and how to use it. They also expect things like messages and notifications to be properly spelled.
There is always an excitement to launch a product after all that time was invested in it. However, don’t forget to cross all your T’s and dot all your I’s to help improve your odds of a successful launch.
