This is Product Management: Release Day
Highs and Lows of Product Launch
Release days can be both exciting and nerve-wracking.
Writing this newsletter brought back some anxious memories that this fictional example brings to life.
I’ve adopted a candid, almost script-like style to give you an authentic and slightly anxiety filled glimpse into the daily life of a product manager during a product launch.
Product management isn't just about writing epics and user stories; it's about navigating the highs and lows, making quick decisions, and managing multiple stakeholders.
You'll read through a detailed, step-by-step account of the critical moments after a product release—from celebrating the launch to facing unexpected issues, coordinating with various teams, and communicating transparently with stakeholders.
*Please note that this is just for example purposes and not every single action was covered here. I aimed to summarize and probably missed some aspects, but it's a raw and realistic portrayal designed to display the realness of product management.
Here’s the life of a product manager experiencing the highs and lows of a product launch.
Day 0 - We Launched! Let stakeholders know!
Feature Context - We launched a new payment method on our cart experience.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) went smoothly, uncovering only minor bugs that we deemed safe to delay addressing.
We provided a Go during Go/No-Go release meeting. Feeling confident.
We’re predicting a 12% increase in cart conversion due to the new payment method on our pitch deck—a frequent request in customer surveys and NPS feedback. This feature promises to simplify the purchasing process significantly.
Marketing’s material for this feature feels fresh and exciting - hoping it resonates.
<product> Stakeholders, we are live - please reach out to hypercare Slack channel if you need anything.
Day 1:
7:30 AM - The dreaded early morning, day after release, email.
<dev lead> reports a potential issue with last night’s release.
<product manager> let's collaborate to diagnose, i've got a few next steps and some questions we have to answer
Context: Development noticed that receipts are not being generated for purchases using the new payment method.
Next Steps & Questions we need to answer:
Are only new payment method users affected, or is it broader?
Are affected customers spending within expected revenue tolerances?
Is our backend order management system logging these sales?
Work with analytics team or development to analyze impact via our analytics platform or backend database.
Is this issue tied to a specific operating system?
Was this bug known or tested for? Review test results and partner with QA.
Are specific customer segments more affected?
What are the implications of a rollback; timing and LOE?
Customer Experience: Will users who adopted the feature lose it? Can we identify and notify these customers?
Start working on customer message to showcase on cart - partner with front end developers to re-use "note" feature we've done in the past. Once we start, time to production and through our cache is 5 min.
<slack messages ensue between following teams>
#DevelopmentOperations
#Payment_Squad
#ReleaseChannel_1.5_Hypercare
#ProductTeam_Payments
<coffee>
8:15 AM - Bring Awareness:
<stakeholder update> Inform co-creators and immediate stakeholders of the issue and our initial findings.
Current Impact: Only customers using the new payment method are affected. Sales are processed, but receipt generation is delayed.
Vendor Engagement: Development teams are working with the vendor, who already planned availability during hypercare (2 weeks post launch).
Customer Message: Draft variations of this message, approved by marketing, for display on affected site pages:
“Order confirmation and receipt delays are expected for customers using the new payment method. Our teams are resolving the issue. Please chat or call for assistance.”
Active Status: The new payment method remains active pending further decisions.
Rollback or Fix Timeline: Awaiting feedback from development operations on rollback procedures.
Confirm the list of stakeholders needed for rollback decisions.
<slack messages ensue between following teams>
#DevelopmentOperations
#Payment_Squad
#ReleaseChannel_1.5
#ProductTeam_Payments
#Marketing
10:00 AM - Update:
Development team - Rolling back the feature will take 2 hours to disable the feature across the cache delivery network. We also feel like if we have some more time, we can probably get a fix together quickly. Don't know if we can release a fix without Release Advisory Board.
Product let us know what is the next step.
Vendor - Vendor has all necessary data for invoice/receipt that have already been placed. Testing is ongoing on a fix on their side and supporting testing our potential fixes.
Engage Order Management System team for testing.
QA is ready to partner with the vendor.
Reiterate the issue's priority with dev ops leadership and our vendor.
New Data Points Coming In:
16% of new orders are using the new payment method.
No impact on average order value or conversion rates.
10 customer care emails received about missing order confirmations.
Feedback is a Gift-
Some customers received blank order confirmation emails.
Order confirmations are sent but without complete data.
Make sure we test the data on order history page post mass update for both existing orders and net new.
10:30 AM - Scheduled Meeting:
Order Management Team:
Discuss re-firing emails with complete data once received from the vendor.
Ensure no double-charging when processing receipts/invoices. Vendor to provide a list of impacted orders post-fix.
Mass data import test successful, but additional changes required.
QA Team
QA has confidence in data import; tested both in staging and production environments.
Before Fix: Orders visible in order history but missing invoice/receipt data. Customers received emails with blank data
After Fix: Orders now show complete data and downloadable invoices/receipts.
Order Management Confirmation: Manual email sending after vendor data list is complete.
Smoke Tests: All other payment types tested along with positive path cart test cases and all are functioning as expected.
Development Team
Fix is being tested in local development environments, we think we have an approach, will update at 11:00AM
Supporting vendor development teams
Prepping release options and timing
11:00 AM - Decision Time:
Stakeholder Notification:
Product decision made not to pause orders for the new payment method at this time.
Development and testing effort for turning off vs. fixing the method takes the same amount of time/effort.
The diagnosis has led to a fix that early signals show is an appropriate approach.
We will be updating customers about the issue and sending revised order confirmations.
Manual generation of invoices/receipts every hour until the issue is resolved.
Need approval on next steps; please see my recommendation included
Will require this groups help to work with our Release Advisory Board to get final approvals for hotfix.
Hot fix Options:
Option 1 (Recommended):
Hot Fix with issue resolution tomorrow night with already planned release; at lowest peak hour (typical pattern)
Fix will get integrated with that code, teams have time for complete testing including finalizng automation testing, manual smoke tests, and UAT. Early signs look good.
Release Advisory Board typically approves these if we come prepared.
Risk: Suboptimal customer experience for 20 hours.
Option 2:
Deploy hotfix at 1 PM.
Only manual smoke tests and priority UAT.
Risk: Mid-Day Production Releases can impact all customers during peak selling hours. Performance with our cache delivery networks will be degraded and for up to 10 minutes may not be available for customers to complete purchases.
Option 3:
Release hotfix to turn off experience tomorrow night
Experience will get removed
Teams will have time to do complete testing including finalizing automation testing, manual smoke tests, and UAT.
Risk: Limited technical risk, but repeat customers may be affected.
11:30 AM - Decision:
Chosen Option: Proceed with Option 1 for nighttime release.
Update appropriate Slack Channels
Partner with release team to ensure they have what they need when it’s time to merge fix into already planned release.
Thank the team for their flexibility
1 PM - Leadership Questions:
Leadership email incoming - questions raised:
“Can we not turn it off?”
“Did we test for this?”
“Do we need a marketing campaign to win back customers?”
<coffee>
<write communication>
Part of the response:
"Turning off the experience vs. fixing the experience has the same timeline, fixing actually has less risk associated.
"Partnering with development, we are prioritizing in our technical roadmap abilities to turn features on/off without releases in a way that doesn't impact customers. I expect starting next quarter we'll be able to start releasing with this capability"
Get input from <development leadership> for my take on timing for our newly prioritized next steps based on the learnings
"We tested for specific attributes from the vendor with our integration; but a new pre-fix for an attribute was added when we promoted to production that we did not account for. This is a miss both on our side as well as the vendor, we plan a retrospective to understand what exactly happen; but are currently focused on fixing. "
Parter with QA for any input on above.
2:00 PM - QA Support:
Extra QA team members from other teams joining for regression testing.
Praise for the team’s quick response and dedication to customer experience.
While the fact that we need a fix in place after releasing is not great, 20% of payments are now going through this new payment method and our conversion rate for cart overall has increased 6%. It's still early, but great early read.
Plan to thank Marketing team for their help getting the word out for the new feature- request to see how engagement from marketing promotional messaging is performing vs other similar campaigns to help our overall learning on where this early success is coming from.
3:00-5:00 PM - Monitoring:
Signals Review: Monitor key metrics for impact:
Revenue
Average Order Value
Conversion Rates
Customer Care Inquiries
# of net new calls about the issue
Resolution for customers who already reached out - are they satisfied with our fix?
NPS Tracking: Note the timing of this issue for lagging indicators like Net Promoter Score so you remember months down the line why it may have dipped (if at all!)
Next Steps:
Confirm next steps with development operations, product, vendor, development, and order management systems teams
Send Email with next steps and agreed upon timelines so we all have visible accountability.
Work with overall team on materials needed Release Advisory Board
<continued conversation to ensure teams support the release and fix >
To finish the story, the release went out successfully, and the fix was implemented.
The product manager ensured that both the vendor and the development team certified the fix on their end. We extended the two-week hypercare period and manually sent the final invoices and receipts for existing orders.
The good news? The new payment method resulted in more repeat users and met the pitch deck's goal of increased cart conversion. Additionally, there was an increase in average order value (AOV). Consequently, the product team is now marketing the capability more prominently in the website funnel to test if its promotion will generate more orders simply because the payment method is available.
Next week I will mention all the lessons learned from this product manager’s release journey.
Until then!
Jason
