We launch about 50 new features each year (plus hundreds of smaller updates). (Then there are hundreds of fixes, which I hate to count!)

We recently chatted about Taco Bell’s test kitchen and its new menu items. This got me thinking about our process for promoting new features and measuring their success. I hope this assessment inspires you to review your company’s product or service launches. 

Our Current Process

When we launch a new, notable feature, we often do this:

• Create a news post that explains the new feature.
• Designate this news post as pertaining to a new feature. 

Once we do the above, the following automatically happens:

• This post will be featured in a quarterly newsletter that summarizes new features.
• The post will appear in the general news summary emailed to clients each Tuesday.
• The post will appear in a dedicated area on the client’s Dashboard for new features.

Promotion: Are We Whispering When We Should Be Cheering?

One wouldn’t go to a football game and whisper their cheers—they’d chant them! While we’re doing some promotion of our new features, I think we’re underselling them. I think we’re often just waiting on clients to discover or stumble upon the feature on their own.

How can we do a better job of telling clients about the features? We’ve tried a few methods to promote new features in the past, but they didn’t stick. For example, we had a monthly New Feature Tuesday, and I’d review all the latest features from the past month via a live webinar. Few people showed up. 

But we know clients want new features. We can’t give up just because one awareness method doesn’t work. We need to seek new ways to get our new features in front of clients, including text messaging and new software approaches.  

Assessment: Where There is Measurement, There Are Results

I think we can better measure the impact of new features, because right now we’re practically not doing that at all.

We don’t have a formal process to verify if a new feature achieves what we think it does and what it promises. It’s as if we assume the submarine is waterproof, but don’t actually have a process to check after launch.

We often don’t know how many people are using a new feature. We launched a new pick-up feature last month, but we don’t know how many times the page was clicked or if the entity that requested it uses it. 
 

Solution: New Feature Captain

To help us promote and assess new features, we’ll designate a new feature captain (NFC). They will be responsible for creating the feature’s benefits list, identifying key users, and measuring usage.

The measurement will consist of this:

We’ll make a bulleted list of the benefits that the new feature will provide. For example, we may say it will save three clicks or increase sales.

The month after a new feature is launched, the NFC will tally how many times it was used. If applicable, the NFC will estimate the number of clicks saved and the increased benefits (i.e., the increase in sales).

The new product feature pipeline will be: 

1. Design new feature —>
2. Code it -->
3. Launch it via News post —>
4. NFC designates target audience and goals —>
5. NFC promotes it to the key audience (e.g., 20 key users) —>
6. One month after launch, later NFC tabulates measurements  —>
7. NFC writes up findings —>
8. NFC suggests ways to increase adoption and improve it.

To anyone who has read Lean Startup, the above process should sound familiar. The author Eric Reiss suggests businesses should follow a similar launch and assessment calendar.

Now, we’re small and don’t have endless resources, but I feel we should be measuring new key features.

Part of the NFC’s job will be to identify 20 clients who can use the new feature. The NFC will message them to ensure they are aware of the feature and encourage its use. When the NFC measures results the next month, they’ll contact these 20 clients and ask: A. Did you use it? B. How can it be better?

The NFC will share these findings with the team and may create a public news post with the findings.

When Taco Bell launches a new item, they promote it and measure its success. How is it performing? Is it meeting expectations? How can it be better? We’ll start doing this via the NFC.

We don't want to launch new menu items without measuring whether they get eaten. If this were a submarine, we would need to ensure it makes it to its destination. Our NFC captain will ensure we map and reach our destination.

Homework:

• Count how many new features or services your company launches a year.
• Determine how and where you promote your new features or services.
• How are these new features or services being tracked in terms of their impact?
• What process exists to measure usage and evaluate possible improvements?

• Who is in charge of new features? Do you need a New Feature Captain?