![\"Unveiling](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_01.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the early days of running a startup, it\u2019s hard to surprise anyone \u2013 the biggest challenge is getting anyone to discover you in the first place.<\/p>\n
Because of this, most startups, especially those who follow the principles laid out in books such as \u201cThe Lean Startup\u201d, tend to work in the open.<\/p>\n
Collaborating with your customers enables you to build better features that are aligned with user needs \u2013 there\u2019s never a fear that you\u2019re working on the wrong thing because you\u2019re gaining feedback from inception to launch.<\/p>\n
However, if you\u2019re always implementing new features in the open and iterating alongside your customers, you miss out on a big opportunity \u2013 the ability to surprise and delight customers with unexpected new functionality.<\/p>\n
Everyone loves a surprise. While customers may very well be excited by a new release, it\u2019s also a chance to gain attention from social media and press.<\/p>\n
![\"Surprise](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_02.png\")
<\/p>\n
If you can truly empathise with your customers, then you\u2019re in a much better position to surprise them with a new feature out of the blue. Delivering new functionality unexpectedly, ahead of schedule, can work wonders for driving customers to not just like you, but love you.<\/p>\n
![\"Exposure](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_03.png\")
<\/p>\n
While your customers may be less excited about your publicity, as a business it\u2019s becoming ever more challenging to stand out from the crowd. It\u2019s important to harness any opportunity you have to gain media attention, and surprise feature releases are perfect for this.<\/p>\n
![\"Dont](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_12.png\")
<\/p>\n
Becoming competitor-obsessed is a quick route to the dead pool<\/a>. But a great way to bolster your lead in any market is to develop exciting new functionality and deliver it to customers, without giving any clues to your competitors in the process.<\/p>\n While keeping new features under-wraps may not be the most customer-focused way to introduce new functionality, it\u2019s certainly worked for many hugely successful companies.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Kazuhiro Shiozawa<\/a><\/p>\n Apple is obsessed with the art of surprise.<\/p>\n For example, this week the world is focusing on an event where Apple is expected to release the latest editions of their key product families including the iPhone and Apple Watch. Nobody knows for certain what Apple will release, but thousands of people are happy to spend their time guessing and pondering what might be unveiled.<\/p>\n Amazon Web Services (AWS) have always iterated in a very democratic way, by listening to their customers and releasing new features and products at breakneck speed. But even Amazon are starting to see the benefit of surprising customers with their annual re:Invent conference where they unveil a swathe of updates and new products to an audience of thousands.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Pierre Lecourt<\/a><\/p>\n Microsoft hasn\u2019t always been known for their theatrical launches \u2013 their friends in Cupertino usually take all the limelight, but in 2015 when they launched the Surface Book, they wowed their customers and the media like never before. While Microsoft could have worked on the Surface Book in the open, it would have enabled competitors to spend time subduing the excitement of the launch and the reveal would have garnered far less publicity as a result.<\/p>\n Of course, you are not Apple, Amazon or Microsoft. So should you be surprising your customers in the same way at your startup?<\/p>\n We first heard the term \u201cThe Hollywood Launch\u201d in reference to software releases when reading Getting Real by Basecamp (previously 37signals). Being the kind folks they are, they published the book online for free, so you can read their chapter on The Hollywood Launch<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n As a quick summary, a Hollywood-style launch consists of three key elements: a teaser, a preview, and the launch.<\/p>\n A week or two before launching a feature, you can start dropping hints and teasers to your customers. There\u2019s a number of ways you can achieve this \u2013 publicly through Tweets and images on social networks such as Instagram, via a mention in your email newsletter, and via in-app messages to relevant users.<\/p>\n In the week and days running up to releasing a surprise feature, you can start talking more about what you\u2019re working on. For example, you could share the thought process or reasoning for working on the upcoming feature in a blog post.<\/p>\n When it comes to launch day, you should focus on getting the word out to as many customers as possible \u2013 ensure everyone who\u2019s relevant and interested receives a message via the appropriate channel, be that email, social media or in-app messaging. You could also encourage your customers to share the news and tell their friends about it.<\/p>\n Having a small group of customers to go to for feedback on new features and functionality can enable you to iterate and release quickly, with genuine customer feedback, while also maintaining a level of secrecy from your entire customer base.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re feeling particularly cautious, you could request that your testing group sign some form of NDA to ensure they don\u2019t share new functionality ahead of time, but this likely won\u2019t be necessary for most small businesses.<\/p>\n Working closely with your testers will require effort on their part as well as yours. To ensure they are rewarded for their feedback and trust, you might want to give them a discount on upcoming new features, send them swag, or even a handwritten letter to show your appreciation.<\/p>\n Teasing people about a new feature is a delicate art \u2013 you don\u2019t want to give away too much, but if you give too little then you risk alienating customers and being ignored. Try to define the time and date for launching your new feature so you can build momentum on a schedule, and direct people to a single destination in a co-ordinated fashion.<\/p>\n You can even loop in your group of testers to help spread the word and share the impending announcement with their own networks. <\/p>\n When it comes to launching your surprise new feature, it\u2019s key to ensure your release is synchronised across all channels. A splutter of updates over the course of two hours will be considerably less effective than a single, unified announcement across all platforms and networks.<\/p>\n A good way to ensure you\u2019re synchronised is to line up the blog post ahead of time and schedule the time it\u2019ll be published \u2013 WordPress or Ghost are both great for this. In addition, using a tool like Buffer will enable you to queue up your release across social media channels and enable you to add an image or other media to ensure consistency across Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and others.<\/p>\n We also make use of our own in-app Broadcasts<\/a> feature. This allows us to send a live chat message to all of our existing customers about the feature. Not only does this draw their attention to it, but it also dramatically increases the chances of them engaging with the feature because they’re already logged in and ready to use your product.<\/p>\n For additional exposure, submitting the new feature to sites like ProductHunt can open you up to a whole new audience. You won\u2019t hit the top of ProductHunt immediately, but if proven popular, you should see a steadily increasing flow of visitors to your site as the day unfolds.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most important point to remember when launching anything \u2013 the launch is just the beginning. As soon as a feature is in customers\u2019 hands, the real work starts with listening for feedback and iterating to make improvements. Remember, bad features are born when you don’t listen to your customers<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe most successful surprises<\/h2>\n
Apple<\/h3>\n
![\"Steve](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_04.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAmazon Web Services<\/h3>\n
![\"Amazon](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_05.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMicrosoft<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_06.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Hollywood Launch<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_07.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTeaser<\/h3>\n
Preview<\/h3>\n
Launch<\/h3>\n
How to effectively surprise your customers<\/h2>\n
Define a small group of testers<\/h3>\n
![\"Segment](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_08.png\")
<\/p>\nTease ahead of the launch<\/h3>\n
![\"Peak](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_09.png\")
<\/p>\nAlign the launch time across channels<\/h3>\n
![\"Align](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_10.png\")
<\/p>\nListen to your customers and iterate post launch<\/h3>\n
![\"Keep](\"\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/16_09_05_surprise_11.png\")
<\/p>\n