5 Tips for Getting Your Product from Concept to Launch in Just 4 Weeks
What I learned during my experience leading the launch of the Wix Logo Maker on a very tight deadline.
It’s always a challenge to launch a product quickly, especially when you’re part of a big brand company. That was the case with the logo maker.
On the one hand, it was crucial for us to move fast to become a market leader in the logo design field, but at the same time we needed to meet our brand’s standard and provide our hundreds of millions of users and potential users with the best solution possible.
Here’s how we did it in under one month.
As part of Wix’s one-stop-shop approach, we are always looking for new ways to help our customers build their brands online. Having a logo is a critical part of a business’s brand. However, in 2017 we realized that many of our customers actually didn’t have their own logos for their websites. That’s why we decided to build a product that would quickly create beautiful and unique logos for them.
We knew we had to move fast in order to hit the market running before the competition heated up. And just four weeks later, the Wix Logo Maker was launched.
How did we launch the Wix Logo Maker in just 4 weeks?
In a nutshell: dedication and focus.
Those were the two key ingredients that enabled us to get a killer product out the door in under one month.
How does one get there?
Here are five tips that will help you assemble a dedicated team that is focused on your goal and able to produce great results, fast.
01. Define your ‘why’ and make sure everyone understands it
Oftentimes, people connect to a cause or a project when they understand and relate to the core reason behind it. This connection motivates them to take full responsibility of their own tasks and make better decisions that are aligned with “the why.”
To rally your team around the core reason, you need to fully understand it yourself. Then, you can tell them the full story behind the product, while emphasizing each and every person’s specific contribution to the overall success.
At the start of the Logo Maker project, I created a presentation with the topics below and shared it with all the different teams that would be involved.
- Why are we doing this?
- Why are we going so fast?
- What do we know about the market?
- What’s our opportunity?
- What’s the product we’re building?
- How can you help make this the best product ever?
The presentation aligned everyone with the reasoning behind the project and let them understand where and how they would contribute the most to its success.
02. Keep your team small to move fast
Although it sounds like a fortune, when you work on a strategic project in a big company with almost unlimited resources, the offered help can actually affect your progress. To meet the deadline, you’ll be offered more developers, UX designers, QA, etc… You want it, you got it.
The truth is: The smaller your team, the faster you’ll go.
When additional experts join a team for a specific project, it can actually postpone a deadline dramatically.
A good, tight knit team knows how to work together with synergy; they care for each other, help one another, and have their own unique dynamic that you, as a team leader, worked so hard to build.
When you add outside people to a team, as talented as they may be, the dynamic and intimacy changes. Plus, processes are slowed down until trust is built and everyone gets their groove on.
Bottom line: Stick to a small core team and turn to outside help only when absolutely necessary.
03. Maintain a healthy work process
Specifically what I mean is that I like to work in sprints.
By “sprints,” I mean that I break down large goals into small tasks with defined deadlines. This is my way of keeping everyone focused on what they need to do and (equally as important) reminding them of what they shouldn’t be doing.
Sprints help me create an environment where everyone has ownership of their tasks and understands how these tasks contribute to the bigger picture.
Many teams use project management tools such as Trello, Jira and Monday to keep track of individual tasks and the team’s progress. However, I manage sprints with a simple Google Sheet. I share it with the entire team so we can all see each other’s statuses and get full transparency. The simplicity of the tool doesn’t require a lot of updating, so everyone can focus more of their time on doing their actual work.
To keep us all on track, I lead weekly sprint meetings with the team. Each sprint has a defined goal with a specific deadline, and each meeting starts with a demo. The demo can be as simple as a button that leads to an empty page, as long as it shows that actual progress is being made. Then, the team members share their individual progress and we eliminate any constraints. Lastly, we set tasks for the next sprint according to the goal I’ve set for the upcoming week.
04. Push for a parallel work method
To build a product fast, it’s crucial that you don’t waste a moment of time. Therefore, every party involved needs to start working on it at this moment, with the information that they already know. As they continue, they can then build on that progress with new information received.
For example, the developers should start building the infrastructure using only the wireframes, while the UX team completes the interface design. Once the full design is ready, the developers can update accordingly.
This type of work process requires flexibility and a high tolerance for change. As a team leader, you need to build an environment that welcomes and encourages that.
Specific to this example, the UX designer needs to feel that if they change their mind, it’s okay to shift to a different design. Similarly, the developers should be made to feel that all the work they have done is always meaningful, even if not all of it is used in the end.
Here’s a wireframe of the Wix Logo Maker’s initial version:
05. Be bold enough to launch
As you are approaching the finish line, everyone will try to tell you why you shouldn’t launch the product yet.
You’ll hear why it’s not ready, why it’s not good enough, and why you need to wait. They will tell you that if they had just one more week, day or hour, the product would be that much better.
It’s all true. But you need to be bold enough and take the risk to launch when you decide it’s the right time.
As a guideline, the right time to launch is when the value you give exceeds the damage you (could) do.
As the team leader, you need to reassure everyone that launching is only the beginning. Features can be added, design can be improved, and code can be stabilized.
As long as you bring value to your customers without harming your company’s reputation, it’s “Go Time.”
More importantly, launching your product quickly allows you to get real customer feedback early, so you can keep on improving to build the best possible product for them.
To sum it all up, to launch your product quickly and effectively:
- Align everyone to the core “why”
- Keep your team small to move fast
- Maintain a healthy work process
- Encourage parallel work
- Be bold enough to launch
Good luck!
Want to try out this product yourself? Create a logo with the Wix Logo Maker today!
