Build. Release. Launch.

Every product team should know these 3 words:

Build. Release. Launch.

• Build: When the technical team pushes changes to production. Changes may not be accessible to end users, but the code for them is present.
• Release: When the feature becomes visible to the user. This might be accomplished via feature flag. Or if a build is immediately available, then it’s also a release.
• Launch: All the marketing and messaging that gets the product into the hands of customers & prospects (e.g. newsletters, ads, brand communication, etc.)

It’s important for teams to understand this because different part of the company have different responsibilities.

• For build and release, it’s the tech team’s responsibility to see that the new capabilities are functioning well in production.
• For a launch, marketing needs to be ready to tell the world about how much better your product is.

And most importantly, there needs to be coordination between these groups. Timing between Release and Launch needs to be clear for everyone involved so that marketing goes out when the feature is actually available. Using this language helps the whole group understand what’s happening.