Sony – Launching a secure storage

Reading time: 3 minutes

Organisation
Sony Professional Media

Role
Product Manager

Year
2016

Scope
XQD storage, B2B launch

A better product is not enough. A photographer on a shoot will not change memory cards because a brochure says so: the new card has to survive their real day.

The company

Sony is known worldwide for its consumer electronics, but its Professional division serves a different audience: broadcasters, studios, photographers and retailers who depend on Sony cameras and media for their work. For them, storage is not an accessory. Losing a card means losing a shoot, a match or a live event.

Context

Sony Professional Media was launching a new secure storage solution for professional cameras, sold through retail partners and directly to professional users.

The challenge

Professionals only switch when nothing in their workflow breaks. The product had to be adopted in the field, one studio and one reseller at a time, and the feedback from those first users had to reach the product team quickly.

What I did

  • Led the system project and the full go-to-market of the launch.
  • Organised client events and demonstrations where professionals tested the product in their own conditions, with their own cameras.
  • Worked with sales teams and retail partners on field deployment, and set up feedback loops from the field to the product team.

What changed

  • +18% field adoption
  • +12% sales volume

A launch is not a date, it is an adoption curve. Plan for the six months after the announcement.

What I keep