If you haven’t got a product launch system in place, you end up doing all the repetitive tasks every time you launch. These hacks will help you create a well-oiled product launch machine that gives you more freedom.

Your world will change once you have a launch system in place that you and your team understand.

That’s what I discovered after doing things wrong for so many years. As soon as I nailed down some SOPs, I got my Amazon / eCom business on the right track.

I can help you do the same.

These four hacks may help you build a well-oiled product launch machine.

Hack #1 – Model the System

My launch system template gives you a good idea of a launch system that you can put in place. It helps you outline your key processes and tasks, as well as giving you a central base for all of your resources.

Copy and paste that template into Google Sheets. From there, you can start making the little tweaks that make it relevant to your business right now.

I recommend changing whatever doesn’t fit your business. If you have processes of your own, just add them in. This is just a rough guide that you can use as a baseline.

Once you’ve tweaked, it’s a good idea to show the system model to the rest of your team. You may want to take their feedback on board, especially for processes that you’ve already offloaded to other team members. Re-tweak based on that information until you have something that fits your business.

Remember that this doesn’t have to be perfect. You can come back to it at any time to make further adjustments.

Hack #2 – Use Leverage to Unlock Time and Cash

Now you’ve got your launch system, it’s time to start offloading tasks.

I have seven steps for this that you may find useful:

Step 1 – Highlight all of the tasks in your model that are currently a drain on your time. Typically, these are the low-value, repetitive tasks.

Step 2 – Create a training video for each task. Give each video context to show why the task is important and then run through the steps for completing the task.

Step 3 – Consider ways to measure the success of the process. This could be a measure of the time it takes or its ideal cost.

Step 4 – Start coaching your chosen team member on how to complete the task. With the training complete, you can assign a block in their calendar to the task.

Step 5 – Set some time aside to provide further training and coaching, if needed.

Step 6 – Once your team member understands the process, have them create SOP documents. You can approve these before filing them away ready for whenever you need them.

Step 7 – Hold a Team Workshop Meeting weekly to celebrate your team member’s success in taking on a higher responsibility and refine your systems over time.

You can repeat this for every process you want to offload.

This may help you bring tasks from high level to eye level. The idea here is to take the high-level and detailed steps involved in each task and turn them into an SOP. The video and documents nail down the SOP and became part of your training materials.

Now, they’re available for your people to research whenever they’re needed. This means your business doesn’t grind to a halt if someone is sick or decides to leave.

Hack #3 – Use KPIs to Drive Execution and Results

Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help you track how well you’re executing your main business driving processes.

This helps you stay on top of productivity issues. Great KPIs show you what’s getting done well and what needs a little more work.

Simply put, the numbers don’t lie.

Your KPIs highlight issues including:

• Where you might implement further training.
• Which staff would benefit from that training.
• Who you may have to let go to keep the business moving forward.

There are two types of KPI that you can focus on – tangible and intangible.

I recommend focusing on the tangible ones first. These include things like time, quality, and cost. You could track them on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis to paint a picture of what’s happening with the business.

I have a quick example KPI document that you can take a look at here.

With any outcome, you must have a clear outcome or target. A clear way to track that your whole team understands and can see (scoreboards / KPI trackers) that shows you are moving forward. Then you need clear accountability.

The regular workshop stye meetings mentioned before, along with clear tracking help keep you team accountable.

Hack #4 – Avoiding Overwhelm

If there’s one hack that I think you should implement from my list, it’s this:

Run regular Workshop Meetings dedicated to improving your business.

Your Workshop Meetings give you a chance to check in with the people in the trenches. You can learn about any issues and hold your people accountable. You may also find that you improve team engagement because you’re able to clarify your vision, outcomes and accountability.

Here’s a useful agenda that you can follow to provide a framework for your meetings:

1. Check the action items from last week.
2. Check your KPIs and highlight the targets for the month ahead.
3. Brainstorm around any challenges the team faces.
4. Prioritise the key improvements you can make.
5. Debate with your team on which priority issues to focus on.
6. Cover any additional training that the team might need.
7. Block any team’s training and tasks into their calendars.

These Workshop Meetings keep everything on track alongside implementation. This helps you avoid overwhelm because your team knows what the outcomes are, what the score is and who is responsible for each task / project.

The Final Word

Once you’ve followed these four hacks, you’ll have a well-oiled product launch machine for your business.

I don’t want you to think that you have to get this perfect first time. This is a system that will require tweaking, especially as you scale up and add more members to your team.

Just follow my hacks and you’ll build a solid framework for your next product launch.Perhaps you want a little extra guidance? If that’s the case, you can download an even more detailed cheat sheet here.

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