Parts 2 and 3 are Implementation and Rollout. Check out Part 1, Internal Buy-In & Analysis

Part 2: Implementation

Determine what work needs to be done

What does implementation look like? Read (or at least skim) the implementation guide. Determine what you need to do before anyone implements the work.

A common item to figure out for both analytics and feature flag software: what metadata do you need? For example, will you want to analyze (or turn on feature flags) based on user permission? Based on state, or subscription type? Etc. 

Figure out who will do the work and align on requirements

Read more: Launching Analytics (and other) Tools in a B2B SaaS, Parts 2 & 3

This may be another ‘work with your manager’ thing, or it may involve working directly with the head of engineering and head of tech support, for example. 

Once that’s done, work with whomever was chosen and ensure they understand what you’re looking for. This may be done via a ticket and/or a discussion. Include links to any implementation documentation you were able to find. (Pendo example, MixPanel example)

You will likely want to do a POC (Proof of Concept) in a dev environment first, and be involved in testing the initial implementation. 

Part 3: Rollout

Align on who will help and discuss governance

Depending on the size of your company, you’ll likely need help with this part. Understand who wants to be involved from each team, and who wants to have additional involvement. 

For example, at my current company, I have a “Pendo steering committee” who brainstormed page and feature tagging guidelines with me, and have assisted the launch in other ways. We’ve discussed which team “owns” the guides, and what other team they’ll work closely with. 

Get and give training & documentation

You’ll note that I put governance before training. I think it’s helpful to know who your key players are internally, and what the guidelines are even before training. However, if this is your first time, you may need to do training before you can create guidelines.

Training may be more formal: Pendo insists on formal live training being included, for example, and also has Pendo Academy (LaunchDarkly also offers an academy). 

Or it may be made up of stitching together various tutorials and guides (Posthog example).

Document the training and guidelines somewhere that people internally can access it (i.e. Confluence, etc.). Make sure the most commonly requested help is well-documented to save yourself time in the long run.

For example, I created a ‘replay’ training page with a short video to explain how it works for an analytics tool; this could be sent to support team members who only needed to know how to use this feature. 

Last but not least: keep it going

Ensure there’s a method for ongoing questions and issues. You could create a Slack/Teams channel for folks to reach out in. 

If you choose to take this kind of project on, know that it will be a lot of work. But the results, if you succeed, are worth it. 

Best of luck!