Do you want to successfully launch your new product? Then you’ll definitely need a platform like this! Inside it sits a special AI capable of assisting at every stage of the product launch. And it’s not just an interesting platform. It’s also a timely recipe by which you can still manage to create a new platform for even more massive and promising areas.
THE ESSENCE OF THE PROJECT
Ignition assists companies in launching products, whether it’s a startup’s first product or a new version of an already existing product. Ignition’s goal is to turn paper-drawn launch plans into revenue, which should come faster and in larger volumes with their platform.
If you’re genuinely involved in product launches, not just doing it in a haphazard way, it’s a rather complex, multi-step process:
- First, a market and competitor analysis needs to be conducted.
- Then, a minimal version of the product should be developed, incorporating all its essential features, but managing to do so as quickly as possible.
- Following that, it’s essential to organize a marketing campaign, conveying the product’s competitive advantages to a well-defined target audience in a simple and clear manner.
Moreover, this multi-step process usually involves many different individuals — at the very least, it includes the product manager, marketers, salespeople, operational department employees, and customer support staff. All these individuals must work coherently according to a unified plan and contribute to the process of a successful launch — both during its preparation and execution.
The first task that Ignition simplifies is market and competitor analysis. The platform’s AI tool will quickly and thoroughly analyze competitors’ products, taking into account the latest news, reviews, user feedback, and even these products’ search visibility found online.
The second task is the creation of a product development roadmap that takes user feedback into account. To do this, Ignition needs to integrate customer support platforms (like Intercom or Zendesk). Then, based on the analysis of user reviews and requests, Ignition’s AI will start suggesting ideas for new features that should be incorporated into the product because they matter to the users.
The third task is marketing campaign planning. The platform offers an “AI Copilot” that provides guidance on optimal channels for marketing campaigns and even ad and mailing texts. These are specifically selected by Ignition’s AI and tailored for a specific product and its target audience.
The fourth task is assessing the launch’s effectiveness. To make the evaluation meaningful, Ignition needs to be connected to the advertising dashboards, Google Analytics, and most importantly, the corporate financial system. Then, Ignition’s AI will analyze the advertising statistics linked to the revenue generated, offering recommendations on where to invest more money and what needs to be changed or turned off.
Ignition claims that using their platform allows for a 120% increase in the adoption of a new product by users and, consequently, its revenue. At the same time, saving at least 20 working hours for each employee involved in the launch process.
The platform’s minimum configuration is available for free, but it seems to be just for trying out its features. For specific pricing on using the platform, one must directly contact Ignition.
The startup was founded just last year and was launched this year. However, they claim that “already hundreds of companies launch their products using Ignition.”
Ignition raised its first small investments earlier this year, even before launching their platform. Now, after acquiring their first “hundreds” of real customers, they have new investments amounting to 8 million dollars.
What’s interesting
As stated on Ignition’s website, 81% of marketing directors agree with the statement that a product launch is “either a success or a complete failure.”
Moreover, the effects of a failed launch can seldom be corrected later on, as the launch typically defines the product’s positioning in the eyes of the users. And positioning is such a thing; once it’s set in the users’ minds, it’s hard to change.
Furthermore, the success or failure of a launch significantly impacts the team’s morale. If the launch is unsuccessful, the team may get disheartened or even disband. And without a team, what can one do to rectify the situation?
The thing is, the success or failure of a launch often isn’t determined by the product’s quality, but by the quality of the launch process. A poor launch can tarnish a product’s reputation for a long time or even permanently. A good launch can rocket even an average product.
That’s why Ignition offers to turn the well-organized product launch process into a competitive advantage.
This is an important point. Startup founders usually seek competitive advantages only in the product itself, although its success is influenced by many different factors. For instance, the sales process organization is also a competitive advantage that can make a lot of money selling an average product. A poor sales process won’t even allow for great product sales.
According to Ignintion, the main reasons launches fail are:
- The launch process lacks repeatable elements — something that can be replicated on a larger scale later.
- There’s a lack of transparency and coordination between different people involved in the launch process. As a result, synergy is missing at best, and at worst, everyone pulls in their direction.
- The assessment of launch success is “at least vague.” There are no clear target indicators and no ongoing procedure to match current indicators with target ones, which would allow for launch process management.
I’m very intrigued by the point about “repeatable elements.” Many founders think that a launch is a bright, colorful… but a one-time show, after which regular routine work to promote the product begins.
But no! A launch is the first test of product promotion methods, from which we need to select the most successful ones to repeatedly use, improve, and scale in the future. Only in this way can a launch become part of a strategy, rather than a one-time tactical action that, at best, can only produce a short-term effect.
By the way, the topic of platforms for product launches suddenly became popular.
Startup Panobi created a platform for optimizing product launches. Admittedly, they don’t focus on AI, but its founders were involved in Slack’s highly successful market debut. This startup raised $5 million in investments.
On the other hand, the platform Gobi focuses precisely on using AI to create and launch products. The AI assistant of the platform can take a founder’s idea and develop it into a detailed product creation plan based on that idea. This platform hasn’t been launched yet, as its founders conceived it only in July. But they have already managed to raise $400,000 for its development.
Where to go
Ignition summarizes the essence of its product as allowing the automation of all actions for product launch.
And this is an important statement! The problem is that startups usually try to come up with something new. But many successful startups create platforms that simply simplify, speed up, and reduce the cost of what people and companies already do.
Now, in the era of AI emergence and development, this has become a great recipe for creating startups. I wrote about this one and a half months ago on the “Dark Side” in a post titled “A Thousand Opportunities Right Now.”
- “A good idea is to create niche AI startups,” wrote the founder of Box with a capitalization of $3.74 billion yesterday, “You choose a market and niche, understand how processes are built there, make simple software to support them… and then add AI to it so that the people involved in these processes can do their part faster and easier. This is a huge opportunity that is still open in thousands of niches.”
- It’s one of those thoughts that I’ve expressed several times, but couldn’t articulate as succinctly and simply 😉
- By the way, Paul Graham replied to him that this is how a typical startup from the current Y Combinator batch operates. So it’s not just a “good” idea, but an idea “worthy of acceptance at Y Combinator.”
So the main general direction is the creation of platforms using AI to simplify, speed up, and reduce the cost of processes companies are already engaged in. The whole focus is on which area to choose for this and how exactly to apply AI in this area.
Launching new products is, of course, an interesting topic, close to all of you 😉 But I think that for the described recipe, you can find even broader markets with more massive and regular use.
So, which area and processes for automation using AI will you choose?