Why “Build, Ship, and Pray” Doesn’t Work
Why promotion makes or breaks product launches, how even 0.1% churn can hurt your business, and this week's top product management insights.
Happy Friday, readers!
Product leaders are no strangers to the “build, ship, and pray” mentality. But promotion is a crucial part of the product workflow because even the best features will fail if users never discover them.
This week, Derek Pharr, VP of Product at Sporcle, a trivia and pub quiz online and mobile platform, is exploring the flaws with the “build, ship, and pray” approach, and why even you shouldn’t wait for “perfect” (is there even such a thing?) to promote your product.
Happy reading,
Imane Rharbi
Our go-to-market sucks (and what I'm doing about it)
Derek Pharr, CPO at Sporcle, shares how his team is shifting to a go-to-market approach that treats promotion as a crucial part of the product process.
In this post:
Why the “build, ship, and pray” mindset leads to invisible features and wasted effort
Real examples from Sporcle where a lack of promotion undermined strong product launches
How Derek and Sporcle are shifting culture by building GTM into product craft, from better infrastructure to defining “good enough to promote”
Leader Spotlight Roundup
Leader Spotlight: Unifying two halves of digital brand experience, with Jessyca Frederick
Jessyca Frederick is Director of Digital Product at Wine Enthusiast, leading strategy, UX, and analytics to unify the brand’s media and ecommerce experiences. Previously, she held senior roles at WineClubReviews.net, ThisNext, Edmunds.com, and Shopzilla, where she focused on digital product, SEO, and user experience.
In this interview, Jessyca talks about:
The outcomes and learnings from a digital transformation initiative that involved integrating cross-functional divisions into one cohesive site
The qualitative and quantitative signals her team monitors to track digital experiences
Bringing systems thinking and SEO background to product
Read more Leader Spotlights
ICYMI: LaunchPod
Ken Houseman, VP of Product at Zuora, was recently on LaunchPod to discuss how even the smallest increase in churn can cause huge profit loss. Also in this episode:
How Zuora made payments so valuable that customers want to pay more, boosting revenue, margins, and customer retention
And how Ken used AI to cut down on prototyping time and unlock faster, smarter product development
🔥Hot🔥 discussions in PM this week
Are PMs too obsessed with framework? Product leaders often lean hard (or are told to lean hard) on these “recipes” for success, but trendy frameworks are only as good as the seasoned product leaders using them.
Shopify is adding a coding section to its Product Manager interviews. Does this mean PMs should hone their vibe coding skillset?
Five questions to ask your product monthly to drive sustainable growth, including “Will my product be here in a year? In five? What can I do today to make this happen?”
What the GPT-5 launch teaches product managers and why OpenAI caused an uproar by sunsetting GPT-4o without warning (and ultimately bringing it back).
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