Looking at the successes – and failures – in product launches, we have discovered that launches succeed in the same way: common objectives, coordination and communication among all members of the launch team. On the other hand, launches can fail in any number of ways. These mistakes actually occurred, so we’re leaving the names off.

2.	“Some purchase orders for components were delayed, so parts were late and product assembly was held up. We had nothing to ship on the launch date.”
	- manufacturing manager

3.	“We had a few prototypes and demo software for the press, but we hadn’t expected demand for early copies from other departments. The sales team needed a lot for pre-selling, and customer support needed some for training as well.”
	- product manager

4.	“We were planning to launch in a new region, and didn’t check for compliance issues early enough. We found out too late that our product would have required modifications to comply with local regulations. We postponed our entry into that region until our next release.”
	- international sales manager

5.	“Finance wanted us to adjust the pricing of one product slightly to meet their gross margin requirements. By the time we got the price approved, we’d missed deadlines for sales catalogs, reseller programs and a big corporate marketing campaign.”
	- product manager

6.	“We had a lot of business partners involved with our new product: OEMs, providers of services, co-marketers, content providers and distributors. We just couldn’t get all of the contracts signed in time to meet the launch date.”
	- vice president, business development

7.	“There were so many last-minute product issues that our product marketing group didn’t spend any time educating sales. We launched on schedule, but we had no sales presentations. It was two quarters before we had a consistent sales message.”
	- vice president, worldwide sales

8.	“We simply forgot to set up the product SKU in the company’s systems. For the first two weeks after the launch we couldn’t take a single order for it.”
	- product manager

9.	“Our marketing materials were late. We got off schedule fairly early, and just never recovered. We ended up shipping follow-up packages to people who had attended our launch events.”
	- director of marketing communications

10.	“We had a substantial advertising budget approved, but the product information and a lot of the launch plan arrived too late. Our advertsising campaign for the product didn’t start until two months after the launch.”
	- director, media planning