Customer Reviews

Product Launch the Microsoft Way

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mastan's Product Launch the Microsoft Way provides an insider's view to the best practices of world class product planning and launch execution. Mastan details every step from targeting the audience to enabling effective partner sales. Rife with insightful graphics, the book provides a recipe for success at every phase of the process. This is one of few books I keep at the ready for a quick reference, and to which I frequently refer colleagues who are going through a new launch cycle. There's so much richness and depth for each stage that it's great to scan through to glean tips at each phase. Last week, I went back to the PR Chapter, aptly titled "Getting Slimy, Baby" to review Mastan's mode on aligning your hook, positioning, and perceptions. In my current role, I do field readiness, and wasn't getting the depth of data I needed from my product management colleagues, so I rolled through the PR questions on page 190 with him, and got a much clearer picture of the product's positioning, from which I was able to craft a much improved field readiness strategy. Whether your role is product planning, product management, channel or field readiness, marketing strategy, or PR, or any combination of these, you'll find invaluable tips and strategies to land your product effectively.

I am surprised that no one wrote a review yet for this book. I almost did not write one because I read the book by borrowing it from my University library and not buy from Amazon. I feel that the author lived every bit of this book and has the urge to educate the reader about everything about business development, product management, product launch and Go to market strategies. The books covers lots of ground including power and politics within the organization, channel strategy, pricing etc. This is a great book for anyone new to product management and it is required book for any MBA student interviewing for product manager jobs. Even if you get only 20% of the concepts and apply it in your next project you stand to gain a whole lot. I liked the way the whole product development life-cycle is laid out and how the author asks us to think of the business case for each product. It would have been nice if the book points the reader to deep-dive sources for specialized topics like Pricing. The book is also based on traditional products like on-site software and not on-demand software. The book, as the title indicates, quotes methods from Microsoft but does not discuss what did not work and what should have been done differently.
I give 3 stars because I reserve 4 and 5 stars for the future.

I'm a marketing professor at a top-ten MBA program. This book is the most complete and insightful product marketing book I have seen come to market. The range of topics and the depth of coverage makes this book a must read for all marketers. I am using this as required reading for my students. I was particularly impressed with the real-world, nose-to-the-grindstone advice provided, both from the marketing execution perspective and as well the great analytical frameworks provided. The book is like a product marketing bible--a fantastic reference. Really delivers value. I strongly recommend this book be on your shelf of must-read marketing titles.