Put Some Clothes On: Using T-shirt Sizing for Setting GTM Expectations

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My preferred way of prioritizing work on new product releases, especially when managing multiple products and audiences, is to use a typical t-shirt sizing chart.

Engineers and developers use T-shirt sizing often as a quick way to label work based on hours needed, teams involved, or predicted impact. Initially, practitioners of ‘agile’ project management used T-shirt sizing to estimate sprints.

Product marketing can adopt this tactic for go-to-market strategies as well. T-shirt sizing opens the door for smooth, repeated process and common expectations across cross-functional teams regarding releases.

As always – I also encourage a bit of fun to be included in the process. So, here’s how I like to group releases.

UN Underpants	S Small	M Medium	L Large	XL Extra Large	J Jumbo
negligible change to the UX / UI in product no value in communicating externally	simple change in UX or UI for the end-user	moderate change in how an end-user would typically use the product	additional functionality that improves the end-user experience	additional functionality AND a sales opp	new product, new market, new use case

JUMBO, XL, L, M, S, and…. underpants

Jumbo Launches

J – Jumbo features defy all understanding of clothing sizes. These are usually brand new products, brand new markets, or extremely unique deliveries. I like to picture a Lady Gaga Met Gala outfit or something that would only walk a runway once. It’s all hands on deck and all bets off.

Extra Large Launches

XL – Extra Large features and just like large features but with a more impactful revenue component. Either there’s a new B2B sales incentive or a new purchase flow for B2C products. It’s important to get launch right to create as much momentum for sales right out of the gate as possible. You should be pulling out all the stops.

• Example: The automated marketing service that sends out scheduled emails can now also send out scheduled texts for an additional subscription fee.

Large Launches

L – Large features are significant changes to the user experience and add additional functionality. They’re a big deal and deserve some noise – even considering a press release on occasion.

• Example: Users could only share pdf files, but with the update they can share video files, animated gifs, or images.

Medium Launches

M – Medium features are moderate changes in how the user typically interacts with the product or expects the product to work.

• Example: Instead of 4 clicks to get to the editing screen, it now only takes 1 click. The notifications can now be sent to multiple email addresses instead of just one.

Small Launches

S – Small features are noticeable changes to the user interface or the workflow but don’t necessarily change the end result or the expected action.

• Example: The UX team turned hyperlinked text into a button.

Underpants Launches

Un – Underpants features are just what it says on the tin. Changing your underwear is extremely important, but not always something you go around telling people about. Usually encompasses backend releases that can impact internal teams, but not necessarily worth external communications around.

• Example: The internal config tool was updated to be less complicated for implementation teams, thus making product setup faster

Want to use T-shirt sizing in your own PMM day-to-day?