Planning Product Launch

Core Philosophy

Launch is a process, not an event. Most launches fail not because the product is bad, but because the preparation was incomplete — monitoring wasn't in place, the rollback plan wasn't tested, or the messaging was unclear.

Every launch is a rehearsal for the next one. Document what happened and why so the process improves each time.

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Workflow

Step 1 — GTM Brief

Define the narrative before any tactical work:

Feature: [Name]
Positioning sentence: For [audience], [feature] is a [category] that [key benefit], unlike [alternative].
Target audience: [specific segment — not "everyone"]
Core message: [one thing you want people to remember]
Key channels: [where this audience actually is]
Launch date: [date]
Success metric: [number that changes in 7 days if launch works]

The positioning sentence forces you to make choices. If you can't complete it, the feature scope is unclear and launch should wait.

Output: Top of docs/launches/YYYY-MM-DD-[feature]-launch.md

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Step 2 — Technical Readiness Checklist

Verify before any external communication goes out:

Monitoring

• Error rates visible in dashboard (Sentry, Vercel logs, or equivalent)
• Key metric tracked (primary action event fires correctly)
• Alerts configured for error rate spike > threshold

Rollback

• Rollback procedure documented (how to revert in <10 minutes)
• Feature flag in place if gradual rollout (env var or flags service)
• DB migrations are reversible (tested with down migration)

Performance

• Page load time tested on production (not dev server)
• API endpoints respond < 500ms under normal load
• No N+1 queries in the happy path (check with EXPLAIN ANALYZE if needed)

Security

• Auth flows tested (unauthenticated access properly blocked)
• RLS policies verified (users can't access each other's data)
• No sensitive data in client-visible responses

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Step 3 — Product Readiness Checklist

Documentation

• Feature described in changelog / release notes
• Help doc or tooltip for anything non-obvious
• Error messages are clear and actionable (not "Something went wrong")

Support

• You know how to reproduce reported issues
• Support response template ready for common failure modes

Onboarding

• Empty state guides new users toward the first action
• First-run experience works (tested fresh account)

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Step 4 — Marketing Checklist

Scale to what makes sense for the launch size. A small feature update needs steps 1-2; a major launch needs all of them.

1. Announcement copy — headline, body, CTA. One message, one CTA. Adapt length per channel.
2. Visual assets — screenshot, demo GIF, or short video (≤60 seconds)
3. Channel execution:
   • X/Twitter: thread or single tweet
   • LinkedIn: post with first paragraph carrying full weight (it gets truncated)
   • Newsletter: subject with number or question, single CTA
   • Product Hunt: tagline (<60 chars), first comment with story, hunter lined up
4. Timing: Post when your audience is online. Check your analytics for peak engagement time.

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Step 5 — Rollout Gates

Use progressive rollout when the feature affects data writes, payments, or user auth:

Stage	Audience	Duration	Gate to next
Soft launch	Internal / 5%	24-48h	Error rate stable, no critical bugs
Controlled	25%	3-5 days	Key metric moving in right direction
Full	100%	—	Post-launch review scheduled

For small features (UI-only, no data changes): skip to full launch directly.

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Step 6 — Post-Launch Review

T+7 days — What happened?

• What was the error rate in the first 24h?
• What did the first user reports say?
• Did the key metric move as expected?
• What would you do differently with the preparation?

T+30 days — Did it work?

• Did the success metric reach the target?
• What is the retention rate of users who tried the feature?
• Is there follow-up work (bug fixes, improvements) that came out of launch?
• What's the next iteration based on data?

Output: Append results to docs/launches/YYYY-MM-DD-[feature]-launch.md

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Output Artifacts

docs/launches/YYYY-MM-DD-[feature]-launch.md
├── GTM Brief
├── Technical Readiness Checklist (with checkmarks)
├── Product Readiness Checklist
├── Marketing Checklist + copy drafts
├── Rollout Gate log
└── Post-Launch Review (T+7, T+30)

Quality Checklist

• Positioning sentence completed (not skipped)
• Success metric defined before launch (not "we'll see what happens")
• Rollback procedure documented and tested
• Error monitoring active before external announcement
• Post-launch review date in calendar

Common Antipatterns

• Announcing before monitoring is in place — You find out about the bug from a user tweet, not your dashboard. Monitoring first, then announcement.
• "Success" undefined — If you don't define success before launch, you can't tell if it worked. Define the metric in Step 1.
• Marketing copy written after technical work — The best launches start with the announcement draft. If you can't write it clearly, the feature isn't ready.
• Skipping T+30 review — T+7 tells you if the launch went smoothly; T+30 tells you if the feature is valuable. Both are required.

See Also

• building-fullstack-features — For the technical implementation before launch
• product-strategy — For positioning this launch within broader strategy
• product-analytics — For defining success metrics and post-launch analysis