5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Planning a Product Launch

Originally Published: November 28, 2025

Launching a new product is one of the most exciting steps a business can take. Creating a new product is no easy feat, of course. It represents months and sometimes even years of ideas, planning, design work, and problem-solving. But even well-intentioned teams can undermine the launch by overlooking critical steps that can come back to haunt you and, even, cause your launch to fail. 

The thing is: A new product is the result of a brand-new idea. No matter how exciting and appealing ideas are, if you want to turn them into physical and real products, you need to go through the whole design and launch process. Hint: This has nothing to do with the creative side of the business. More often than not, these steps can be overlooked by new companies because they appear less engaging and creatively satisfying. But they are essential to the success of your product. 

#1. Skipping Market Research

Plenty of product launches start with enthusiasm and confidence, but far fewer begin with data. That’s a problem, because even the most innovative idea can fall flat if there’s no real audience waiting for it. Market research is the foundation of a successful launch, and skipping it is one of the fastest ways to waste time, money, and momentum.

Understanding your target audience means: 

• Identifying who your customers are
• What problems they face
• How they are solving these
• How much they are willing to pay for a better solution

Market research also reveals competitors and alternatives. If customers already have a solution they trust, yours must be measurably better, cheaper, faster, easier, or more appealing. If the market is saturated, differentiation becomes essential. If the market is untested, education and marketing costs may be higher than expected. 

#2. Rushing the Launch

Moving too quickly is one of the most expensive and avoidable mistakes in product development. Rushing leaves little room to refine features, address defects, or conduct meaningful testing. Small oversights can snowball into big problems once the product reaches real users. 

There are also hidden costs associated with cutting corners. Compliance requirements get overlooked. Customer expectations are miscalculated. Support teams become overwhelmed as early adopters report issues that should have been caught earlier. In the worst cases, a hurried launch can expose companies to safety risks and legal liability. In the best cases, your reputation is still tarnished. 

Everybody knows the story of Cyberpunk 2007, which launched with many bugs, disappointing fans from the start. 

#3. Scattering Your Outsourcing

Many product teams buy into the idea that working with multiple vendors gives them flexibility. In reality, it is the opposite effect. Every time a handoff happens, you’re introducing new risks: 

• Miscommunications happen
• Different expectations can cause problems
• Timelines & schedules just don’t align 

Working with a partner that can take care of the whole project from start to finish under one single roof is actually a far more streamlined approach. This reduces the need for those pesky handoffs and keeps the lines of communication open. Besides, when you are planning a new product, this also helps to keep quality consistent from start to finish.

Picking a partner that covers all this is a key decision. 

#4. Keeping Product Testing Superficial

It’s tempting to view product testing as a final checkbox before launch, a quick internal run-through to confirm that everything works “well enough.” In manufacturing, quality issues rarely stay hidden. They surface in customer complaints, warranty claims, safety concerns, and, in severe cases, product recalls that permanently damage a brand.

Thorough testing goes beyond verifying that a prototype functions in ideal conditions. It examines how the product performs under stress, repeated use, and environmental factors, such as vibration, temperature, and impact. Proper manufacturing-level testing can reveal weak points in materials, assembly processes, or design tolerances long before customers encounter them. You definitely don’t want to discover too late that your product isn’t good enough for customers. 

#5. Expecting The Market to Notice

A flawless product by itself doesn’t guarantee anyone will even notice it.

Pre-launch hype is crucial because it gets people actually excited for your product and gives them a reason to care in the first place. This means figuring out who is actually desperate for your solution and crafting messages that get across just why it’s useful. Besides, you also want to set up touchpoints around where your target audience is already hanging out.

Remember: Launch day is just the start of your marketing push. To actually make a success of your launch, you need to keep the momentum going. For the most part, products that fizzle out after the launch day fail because of a serious drop in visibility.

The simple truth is that marketing is part of the product launch itself. If people can’t even figure out that your solution exists, or why it really matters, then they just can’t buy it.

Are you ready to plan a successful product launch? Call Ascend Today! 

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Special thanks to the following source(s) for the image(s) used in this article:

• Unsplash – CC0 License

• Unsplash – CC0 License

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