Every product or feature release requires a detailed product brief. This gives the entire organization insight into the what, how, and why a product is being launched. Here’s how to get started.
A Go-to-Market plan most often begins with a Product (or Feature) Brief. This brief is the primary ‘source of truth’ when it comes to understanding the strategy behind the launch. It is most often created as a partnership between Product Management and Product Marketing (and owned by Product Marketing upon initial completion).
A product (or feature) brief should contain the following sections:
| Section | Content to include |
| Overarching strategy | This is the overview of your product or feature launch. It outlines the what, how, why for launch. It includes details on the marketing opportunity & challenges it addresses. This should be the most informative section. |
| Product (or feature) description | From this section, everyone should understand what is being launched. There should be clear positioning, value prop, benefits, and associated messaging. |
| Relationship within existing portfolio | This should outline how the product is related to the existing product portfolio (if this exists). Or how the feature fits into the existing structure (if this exists). |
| Key features and use cases | You should be very clear as to what features/benefits are being released and why they are important by introducing use cases. These will be important to include in training for sales. (Note: These use cases can also be useful for producing future case studies, so take note of these during the sales and onboarding process). |
| Target audience and personas | This portion of the brief will contain any markets, industries/verticals, buying centers, and personas this release will target. It should also include the potential buyer journey (to support demand gen efforts, as needed). |
| Competitive analysis | Beyond knowing what the product or feature release is, you’ll have to understand where it stands amongst existing technologies out there. This section can help with objection handling and battle cards. |
| Pricing strategy and revenue impact analysis | This section should be created in partnership with Finance and Sales. This will provide projections of revenue opportunity and be detailed in terms of the possibilities for marketing and sales to support demand for this product or feature. The final result of analysis should include some sort of rate card. |
| Partner and channel strategy | If a business has an extensive partner or channel network, they should ensure they have a plan for how this new product or feature works with those partners. |
| Development timeline and Product Roadmap | This section can be linked to an existing development timeline and roadmap (as it will need to be constantly maintained). |
This document will need to be completed to the best of its ability and shared during a cross-functional go-to-market meeting. Maintenance should be as often as it needs to be (as it is a source of truth), and it should be easily accessible.
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