14. Risks Example

Example: Risks in Launching a Product to Multiple Countries

New Terms

Gradual Roll Out: When instead of launching our product to 100% of your users, you gradually increase the percent of users seeing/using your product

Understanding and Mitigating Risks

• Know your product
  Each product is different and will have different risks. If you are new to a product, ask a lot of questions, especially about any previous failures.
  
  

• Talk to all the right people
  Make sure that you are in contact with all of the relevant teams including engineering, testing, legal, marketing, sales, support and more.
  
  

• Keep assessing the risks
  Just because you already have previously launched a product, you can't be sure that it won't break again. Things break, even if “nobody touched them”.
  
  

• Pay extra attention to anything new or special
  New things tend to break more. Make sure that you analyze the potential risks in a new or unique situation.
  
  

• Give everyone enough time to do their job
  Do your best to provide all of your teams the time they need and you will gain credibility as a person who sets reasonable deadlines. This will be helpful when you are up against a tight deadline and you need to convince people to work more hours and go the extra mile for you. That happens, a lot!
  
  

• Make a plan for when things go wrong
  Nobody likes to think about what can go wrong - but as a PM it is your job to be prepared. Planning for the worst case scenario makes it easier to quickly handle problems when they arise.
  
  

• Plan, communicate and then execute
  A launch without a good plan will have more chances to fail. A plan that isn't communicated, can't be executed.