Financial Services Company (FSC)

Financial Services Company (FSC)

I signed an NDA which means I can speak about this project but I can’t name any names. So for the purposes of this case study, let’s call the company Financial Services Company, or FSC for short.

Task: Build a GTM process to manage new commercial launches more efficiently.

Background: FSC is a startup with grand plans for 2023 and beyond but lacked a true process to launch products. As such, the team faced preventable hardships due to lack of planning, sudden pivots, and non-centralized communications. This resulted in confusion, double work, and frustration all-around.

Timeframe: 5 months in total. 2 months to identify the issues and propose a solution. Then back to back launches to test solution for the next 3 launches.

Requirements: KISS (Keep it simple silly) — the final GTM plan needed to be repeatable, easily teachable, and simple enough that it can be followed even in the busiest of times.

The Launch Process

Now: The team has clear templates and orderly steps on how to start and run a launch.

I built a GTM process which included: a template for a kickoff deck and a project planning board. The kickoff deck includes all of the salient strategic insights the team will need to build the right processes. Previously, that information was gathered on the fly and sometimes not built at all. The Monday.com template provided the team think a key checklist of items that should be part of any GTM process. As part of the kickoff process, a group Slack channel MUST be created for all of the RACI holders to stop information trickling through the company via telephone - which caused lengthy delays and double work.

With these changes, I also implemented Product Marketing as the launch owner - meaning this person is the source of truth and is responsible for managing the GTM process.

Before: There was no defined launch process. This means there was no central project owner, no defined source of truth, and no clear understanding of who owns the launch. As a result, FSC’s hardworking team scrambled throughout the a launch process and played telephone on Slack to fill each other in on the latest developments. This inevitably resulted in frustrations, missed deadlines, and mental gymnastics of Orwellian magnitude to “appreciate” the lessons at the end of each launch.

Tools of the Trade

Any presentation, word processing, chat, or virtual meeting tool would work. The key here is getting buy in from key stakeholders to try a totally foreign process and to stick with it.

  • I built the Kickoff deck and the accompanying battle cards in Google Slides. It’s the content that’s key here - not the format.

  • I used Monday.com to rally the team around one central project management board. I built this board to be as comprehensive as needed to enable the team to see what work was in motion, what was stuck, and when we should expect projects to be completed. Then, I spent time working with the team to set expectations and to train everyone on how the board should be updated.

  • To get all the information on one page and to collaborate with key stakeholders from across the company, I used Google Docs - and made it accessible to the entire RACI stakeholder group. This allowed everyone to see and feel included or informed in key decisions and messaging points.

  • To make sure every RACI stakeholder was aware of what was happening during the launch, I created a slack channel so the team had one central place to discuss the project publicly. This way, everyone who wanted to be informed could get the updates in real time.

Results

We captured the post-mortem items following every launch and I used the team’s feedback to inform the next round of post-mortems. I did this to show we’re taking the issues identified seriously and that we’re following up with each launch to monitor progress.

Ultimately, I taught this process to the entire team and trained up a recently promoted marketing director to take on my framework and champion it from start to finish and he did it flawlessly.

Throughout those 3 launches that I led or supervised, I received multiple compliments from across the company regarding how clear, easy to follow, and thorough my plan was.

Each launch was done on time, with minimal issues, and with strong team morale.