Change Management: The Internal Go-To-Market Strategy for Product-Enabled Companies
At product-enabled companies, launching an internal tool or process is different from launching a product to market. For one, there’s no “market” to capture. There is no pricing strategy, no positioning, and no competition. (Well, there is sometimes competition, but that’s a different topic). Instead, product teams must focus on smooth implementation, training, adoption, and ultimately ensuring their teams embrace the new tool and integrate it into their normal workflow.
This is where change management functions as the internal counterpart to a traditional go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Just as GTM aims to gain traction in the market, change management facilitates product adoption and effective use within the organization. Both require planning, communication, stakeholder engagement, and iteration, but their execution differs significantly.
The Similarities between Go-to-Market and Change Management
Communication and Messaging
A strong GTM strategy ensures customers understand the value of a product. Similarly, change management requires internal teams to grasp why a new tool or process exists and how it benefits them. Both rely on clear, targeted messaging that resonates with different audiences.
Stakeholder Engagement
Just as GTM strategies involve engaging key influencers, industry leaders, and beta testers, change management must involve internal champions—leaders, managers, and power users—who can advocate for the change and drive adoption within their teams.
Feedback Loops and Iteration
GTM strategies continuously gather customer insights to refine messaging, features, and onboarding. Similarly, change management must incorporate employee feedback to adjust training materials, documentation, and support based on real-world use and concerns.
Adoption Metrics and Success Tracking
Both GTM and change management must define and track key success metrics. While GTM focuses on conversion rates, retention, and revenue impact, change management tracks adoption rates, usage patterns, and employee satisfaction with the new tool or process.
Key Differences between GTM and Change Management
No Market Placement or Pricing Strategy
GTM involves pricing, packaging, and competitive positioning. Change management, on the other hand, focuses on internal buy-in rather than capturing market share. Instead of pricing strategies, change management emphasizes usability, workflow integration, and team-specific benefits.
Training and Enablement Take Center Stage
While GTM strategies include customer onboarding, change management requires a deeper investment in training and enablement. Each internal team has unique workflows and pain points, making it critical to tailor training materials, documentation, and support resources to fit their needs.
Sustained Adoption vs. Initial Acquisition
GTM often prioritizes acquisition—getting customers to try and buy a product. Change management, however, is about sustained adoption. It’s not enough for employees to be aware of a new tool or process—they must integrate it into their daily work and continue using it effectively over time.
Internal Communication is More Crucial
In GTM, companies use marketing channels to reach external customers. For change management, internal communication strategies—emails, team meetings, leadership updates, and FAQs—are the primary vehicles for driving awareness and understanding. The absence of traditional advertising means the message must be embedded into the company culture and leadership narratives.
The First Step to Change Management Success: Partners
My experience working in B2B SaaS was more of the sales-led growth type, but when it was time to take products or features to market, it was virtually the same as most tech companies. Here’s the thing—it’s not all product management’s responsibility. We contributed to thoughts around pricing, but some people focused on it. There was a dedicated product marketing team working on positioning and promotion. There was even a technical writer who handled the knowledge base updates. We had teams for support, client services, sales, and implementation. Product’s job was to create a product ready for the market, but not necessarily to take it there.
Once I started working primarily on internal tools, all those teams ceased to exist. As a product manager at a product-enabled company—this part applies to internal tools and customer-facing experiences—you don’t have an entire company built around getting your technology to the user or communicating internally that something new exists. Sometimes it’s just you and sheer will.
I’ve been lucky enough to have two different successful experiences with internal teams supporting product launches, and this is my number one recommendation for successful change management/go-to-market planning internally: Have a dedicated team.
Whatever you call them, there’s a place for a team between product management and the people who need to know about product and feature launches—this includes users, stakeholders, and the company at large. They should be able to help integrate the products into the unique situation of each user group as well as communicate the plan for that implementation. Their responsibilities may vary depending on the company but range from creating marketing-type artifacts and coordinating announcements to hosting training sessions and ensuring teams can maintain their workflows with the new technology.
(This “other team” is something I will write about a lot.)
So, how do we take the concept of go-to-market strategy that the product management industry teaches us and translate it to change management?
Whether the responsibility of product management or the “other team,” bringing a new tool or process into an organization requires the same strategic thinking as launching a product in the market. By applying GTM principles to internal change management, companies can drive adoption, reduce friction, and ensure long-term success.
Here’s how to do it:
Define the Internal Market
GTM strategy starts with defining the target market, and so do internal change initiatives. You need a clear audience strategy. Identify who within the company will be impacted.
Audience Segmentation: Define key user groups (executives, managers, frontline employees, power users).
Pain Points & Needs Assessment: Understand how different roles interact with the change, what challenges they face, and what success looks like for them.
Craft the Change Narrative & Communication Plan Like a Marketing Team
Messaging is as critical internally as it is externally. Borrow from GTM playbooks to build a compelling internal narrative.
Storytelling & Positioning: Explain why this change is happening and how it benefits employees, drives value for the company, impacts the customer experience, and differs from past initiatives.
Tailored Messaging: Customize communications for different teams, ensuring relevance to their workflows.
Multi-Channel Engagement: Use emails, Slack or Teams, town halls, intranet posts, webinars, and one-on-one conversations to reinforce key messages.
Remember: The absence of traditional advertising means the message must be embedded into the company culture and leadership narratives.
Enable & Train Employees Like a Customer Success Team
Successful product launches include robust customer success efforts—internal rollouts should do the same.
Training & Enablement Strategy: Package learning materials like self-serve guides, live training, and peer mentorship programs.
Team-Specific Resources: Provide tailored content that explains how the change impacts specific workflows.
Ongoing Support: Offer office hours, help desks, and feedback channels for continued learning.
Remember: it’s not enough for employees to be aware of a new tool or process—they must integrate it into their daily work and continue using it effectively over time.
Leverage Internal Champions & Advocates Like Early Adopters
Identify key influencers to advocate for the product like a tech company uses early adopters to drive market traction.
Internal Champions: Equip early adopters with messaging and resources to drive adoption within their teams. (Read my post about the role of user-stakeholder.)
Leadership Advocacy: Gain executive sponsorship to reinforce the importance of the change.
Plan for Rollout & Adoption Like a Sales Strategy
A new tool or process needs a structured adoption plan, just as a product needs a distribution strategy.
Phased Implementation: Roll out changes gradually by department or function.
Self-Serve Adoption: Provide resources that empower employees to onboard themselves.
Continuous Reinforcement: Keep engagement high with refresher training, success stories, and milestone celebrations.
Measure Success & Iterate Like a Product Team
Change isn’t a one-time event; it requires continuous refinement.
Adoption & Engagement Metrics: Track usage rates, employee feedback, and process improvements.
Iterate Based on Feedback: Run surveys, host Q&A sessions, and adjust training or messaging as needed.
Reinforce & Sustain: Treat launch as the beginning—ongoing support and communication are key to lasting success.
Because product-enabled companies can’t rely on the traditionally known GTM strategies to drive the adoption of internal tools and processes, and the entire company is not built around the success of the product team’s launches, it becomes a lot to expect a product team to handle all this in addition to the strategy and execution to deliver the product itself.
And—at least in my opinion—it’s a different skill set. One of the things we at Workable Strategy specialize in is building those change management capabilities within a product team or creating the team to do it.
It is doable with help, but product management must embrace change management as their internal GTM approach—focusing on communication, enablement, and sustained adoption rather than market positioning and pricing. By treating change like an internal product launch and applying the best practices from GTM, companies can ensure their teams fully integrate and benefit from the tools and processes designed to make their work more efficient and effective, and that stakeholders are aware of the value being delivered for the customer and for the bottom line.