Every year we witness hundreds and thousands of products launches highlighting new innovations and services for the customers across various industries. Unfortunately, some of them are failed outright or at their launch stage, primarily because they were unable to meet the success criterion.

Well, no matter how well planned your project schedule may be, there is always the possibility for delay and it can be due to various reasons. Managing on time launch is quite difficult if the product development is behind schedule and honestly, it’s not only your money which is at stake but also your brand value.

In this article I will discuss, how to handle a product launch when the development is already behind the schedules.

1- Control; when you know that the product development is behind schedule and you will not be able to achieve 100% of the result within limited time, however you can still control some part of it. Review the project goals, priorities, and project team dynamics and pick up on the warning signs of pending delays, You can easily identify the upcoming delays and can manage these by:

• Re-allocating the tasks based on each individual’s potential
• Putting an extra team effort, i.e. getting them work over the weekend
• Hiring an additional team member for short term
• Outsourcing some low risk tasks

Moreover, make sure to avoid tweaking the product in the name of “small changes” as it may impact the entire product negatively. You can still launch the beta version and can clearly communicate this to the user that the product is not the final version.

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2- Communication matters most; during the launch, it is the easiest way to get over with an incomplete product is to announce that we are further or constantly upgrading the product to provide best results to the end user, but your pitch should be flawless. Give it an emotional touch, i.e. we will upgrade the product based on your feedback/ we will bring personalized updated and for this we need your opinions/ your opinion matters most to us and so on.

It not only will give you enough lead time to develop the full product the way you want to but also will show your concerned side towards the customers. That’s how you see Beta versions of many top products.

Related Readings:

How to Get a Solid Communication System for Your Business

5 Ways to Increase Productivity with Technology

The Bottom Line:

Project delays are very common and the major causes of these delays are “setting unrealistic goals”, “unwise schedules” and “not following standard procedures”. You can easily prevent project delays by setting realistic goals, wise scheduling, following standard procedures and communicating effectively. And in case, it is already delayed, do not panic, just be smart in internal and external communications!