Northwind Energy: Launching the New Tier
Product Management
medium40 min0 submissionsMcKinsey
Scenario
Northwind Energy (renewables, Europe) is six weeks from launching a new premium tier — the biggest product change in three years.
Where things stand.
- 86k existing users on the current product
- 688 beta users over the past two months; 80% report satisfaction
- The new tier is priced 51% above the current plan
- Two of the four planned features are complete; a third is in QA; the fourth is at risk
- Support has not yet been trained; documentation is roughly half written
- Marketing has booked a launch event and briefed press for a fixed date
The VP of Marketing wants to hold the date. Engineering wants four more weeks. The CEO has asked you to decide.
Supporting data
product
- features in qa
- 1
- features at risk
- 1
- features complete
- 2
- price premium pct
- 51
audience
- beta users
- 688
- existing users k
- 86
- beta satisfaction pct
- 80
readiness
- event booked
- true
- press briefed
- true
- support trained
- false
- documentation pct complete
- 50
Your task
Make the launch call. Provide:
- Analysis — readiness assessment and launch options.
- Risks — of launching on time, and of delaying.
- Recommendation — your decision, the rollout plan, and the metrics you would gate on.
Ready to move forward? Up next: Marlow Chemicals: One Quarter, Five DemandsNext question
How you'll be graded
100 points, 60% to pass.
- recommendation25
- launch strategy25
- risk management25
- success metrics25
Hint
Reveal suggested structure
- Separate the launch from the release. The event date and the code-ship date are different decisions, and conflating them is what forces bad choices.
- Assess readiness across product, support, docs and pricing — not product alone.
- Generate options beyond ship/delay: staged rollout, limited availability, launch with three features.
- Define gates with numeric thresholds.
- Plan the rollback.